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CHICAGO^ ILLINOIS 





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C0PYRI511T DEPOSIT. 



Study of Child Life 



MARION FOSTER WASHBURNE 

1 1 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR MOTHER'S MAGAZINE 

AUTHOR "EVERYDAY ESSAYS'' 

"FAMILY SECRETS," ETC. 

/£CTURER TO CHICAGO FROEBEL ASSOCIATION 




CHICAGO 

AMERICAN SCHOOL OF HOME ECONOMICS 

1911 



o.^'"'' K-v 
V^^^ 



COPYRIGHT, igo5. BY 

AMERICAN SCHOOL OF HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS 

COPYRIGHT, 1906, 1910, BY 

HOME ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION 

Entered at Stationers Hall, Londoo 
AU Rig/Us Eeitrvtd 



©CI.A2l)2053 



CONTENTS 



An Open Letter .... . v 

Development of the Child .... 3 

Faults and Their Remedies . „ . .26 

Character Building ..... 59 

Play ... ..... 76 

Occupations ..... .90 

Art and Literature in Child Life . joo 

Studies and Accomplishments . . 119 

Financial Training . . . . .126 

Religious Training ..... 131 

Application of Principles . , . .141 

Other People's Children .... 145 

The Sex Question . . . . - 149 

Fathers . . . . . . .152 

The Unconscious Influence . . . 157 

Answers to Questions ..... 160 

Bibliography . . . . . . . (70 

Supplemental Study Program . , .175 

[ndfx ....... 179 



AMERICAN SCHOOL OF HOME ECONOMICS 
CHICAOO 

January 1. 1907. 

My dear Madam : 

In beginning this subject of the 
"Study of Child Life" there may be lurking doubts 
in your mind as to whether any reliable rules can 
really be laid down. They seem to arise mostly 
from the perception of the great difference be- 
tween children. What will do for one child will 
not do for another. Some children are easily per- 
suaded and gentle, others willful, still others 
sullen or unresponsive. How, then, is it possi- 
ble that a system of education and training can 
be devised suitable for their various disposi- 
tions? 

We must remember that children are much more 
alike than they sire different. One may have blue 
eyes, another gray, another black, but they all 
have two. We are, therefore, in a position to 
make rules for creatures having two eyes and 
these rules apply to eyes of all colors. Child- 
ren may be nervous, sanguine, bilious, or pleth- 
oric, but they all have the same kind of inter- 
nal organs and the same general rules of health 
apply to thom all 

In this series of lessons I have endeavored 
to set forth principles briefly and to confirm 
them by instances within the experience of every 
observer of childhood. The rules given are such 
as are held at present by the beat educators to 
be based upon sound philosophy, not at variance 
with the slight array or scientific facts at our 
command. Perhaps you yourself may be able to add 
to the number of reliable facts intelligently re- 
ported that must be collected before much greater 
scientific advance is possible. 



There i3, to be sure, an art of application 
of these rules both in matters of health of body 
and of health of mind and this art must be worked 
out by each mother for each individual child. 

We all recognize that it is a long endeavor 
before we can apply to our own lives such prin- 
ciples of conduct as we heartily acknowledge to 
be right. Why, then, expect to be able to apply 
principles instantly and unerringly to a little 
child? If a rule fails when you attempt to apply 
it, before questioning the principle, may it not 
be well to "question your own tact and skill? 

So far as I can advise with you in special 
instances of difficulty, I shall be very glad to 
do so; not that I shall always know what to do 
myself, but that we can get a little more light 
upon the problems by conferring together. I 
know well how difficult a matter this of child 
training is, for every day, in the management of 
my own family of children, I find such philosophy, 
science and art as I can command very much put to 
the test. 

Sincerely yours. 

Instructor 




(Copy 



FKKIDKICH FROEBEL 
By courtesy ot Tbe Perry Pictures Co.. Maiden, Mass* 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 



PART L 



'T'HE young of the human species Is less able to 
care for itself than the young of any other spe- 
cies. Most other creatures are able to walk, or at any 
rate stand, within a few hours of birth. But the human 
baby is absolutely dependent and helpless, unable even 
to manufacture all the animal heat that he requires. 
The study of his condition at birth at once suggests 
a number of practical procedures, some of them quite 
at variance with the traditional procedures. 

HOW THE CHILD DEVELOPS 

Let us see, then, exactly what his condition is. In ^ ^ 

Condition 

the first place, he is, as Virchow, an authority on phy- »* B^^h 
siological subjects declares, merely a spinal animal. 
Some of the higher brain centers do not yet exist at 
all, while others are in too incomplete a state for serv- 
ice. The various sensations which the baby experi- 
ences — heat, light, contact, motion, etc. — are so many 
stimuli to the development of these centers. If the 
stimulus is too great, the development is sometimes 
unduly hastened, with serious results, which show 
themselves chiefly in later life. The child who is 
brought up in a noisy room, is constantly talked to 
and fondled, is likely to develop prematurely, to talk 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Weight 
at Birth 



State of 
Deveiopmei.t 



and walk at an early age ; also to fall into nervous 
decay at an early age. And even if by reason of an 
unusually good heredity he escapes these dangers, it 
is almost certain that his intellectual power is not so 
great in adult life as it would have been under more 
favorable conditions. A new baby, like a young plant, 
requires darkness and quiet for the most part. As 
he grows older, and shows a spontaneous interest in 
his surroundings, he may fittingly have more light, 
more companionship, and experience more sensations. 

The average boy baby weighs about seven pounds 
at birth ; the average girl, about six and a half pounds. 
The head is larger in proportion to the body than in 
after life ; the nose is incomplete, the legs short and 
bowed, with a tendency to fall back upon the body 
with the knees flexed. This natural tendency should 
be allowed full play, for the flexed position is said to 
be favorable to the growth of the bones, permitting 
the cartilaginous ends of the bones to lie free from 
pressure at the joints. 

The plates of the skull are not complete and do not 
fit together at the edges. Great care needs to be taken 
of the soft spot thus left exposed on the top of the 
head — the undeveloped place where the edges of these 
bones come together. Any injury here in early life is 
liable to affect the mind. 

The bony enclosures of the middle ear r.re unfin- 
ished and the eyes also are unfinished. It is a ques- 
tion vet to be settled, whether a new-born baby is blind 



HOIV THE CHILD DEVELOPS. 5 

and deaf or not. At any rate, he soon acquires a 
sensitiveness to both light and sound, although it is 
three years or more before he has amassed sufficient 
experience to estimate with accuracy the distance of 
objects seen or heard. He can cry, suck, sneeze, 
cough, kick, and hold on to a finger. All of these acts, 
though they do not yet imply personality, or even 
mind, give evidence of a wonderful organism. They 
require the co-operation of many delicate nerves and 
muscles — a co-operation that has as yet baffled the 
power of scientists to explain. 

Although the young baby is in almost constant 
motion while he is awake, he is altogether too weak to 
turn himself in bed or to escape from an uncomforta- 
ble position, and he remains so for many weeks. This 
constant motion is necessary to his muscular develop- 
ment, his control of his own muscles, his circulation, 
and, very probably, to the free transmission of nerv- 
ous energy. Therefore, it is of the first importance 
that he has freedom to move, and he should be given 
time every day to niove and stretch before the fire, 
without clothes on. It is well to rub his back and 
legs at the same time, thus supplementing his gym- 
nastics with a gentle massage. 

By the time he is four or five weeks old it is safe to 

ii—iii 1 Educational 

play With him a little every day, and Froebel has made Beginnings 
his "Play with the Limbs" one o: his first educational 
exercises. In this play the mother lays the baby, un- 
dressed, upon a pillow and catches the little ankles in 



6 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

her hands. Sometimes she prevents the baby from 
kicking, so that he has to struggle to get his legs free ; 
sometimes she helps him, so that he kicks more freely 
and regularly ; sometimes she lets him push hard 
against her breast. All the time she laughs and sings 
to him, a!id h'roebel has made a little song for this 
purpos^. Since consciousness is roused and deepened 
by sensations, remembered, experienced, and com- 
parctl, it is evident that this is more than a fanciful 
play ; that it is what Frocbel claimed for it — a real 
educational exercise. By means of it the child may 
gain some consciousness of companionship, and thus, 
by contrast, a deeper self-consciousness, 
i-irst The baby is at first unable to hold up its head, and 

in this he is just like all other animals, for no animal, 
except man, holds up its head constantly. The human 
baby apparently makes the effort because he desires 
to see more clearly — he could doubtless see clearly 
enough for all jihysical purposes with his head hung 
down, but not enough to satisfy his awakening men- 
tality. The effort to hold the head up and to look 
around is therefore regarded by most psychologists 
as one of the first tokens of an awakening intellectual 
life. And this is true, although the first effort seems 
to arise from an overplus of nervous energy which 
makes the neck muscles contract, just as it makes 
other muscles contract. The first slight raisings of the 
head are like the first kicking movements, merely im- 
pulsive ; but the child soon sees the advantage of this 



Efforts 



HOIV THE CHILD DEJ'RLOrS. 



apparently accidental movement and tries to master it. 
I'reyer'^ considers that the efforts to balance the head 
are among the first indications that the child's will is 
taking possession of his muscles. His own boy ar- 
rived at this point when he was between three and 
four months old. 

The grasp of the new-born baby's hand has a si.r- 
'prising power, but the baby himself has little to do 
With it. The muscles act because of a stimulus pre- 
sented by the touch of the fingers, very much as the 
muscles of a decapitated frog contract when the cur- 
rent of electricity passes over them. This is called 
reflex grasping, and Dr. Louis Robinson,f thinking 
that this early strength of grasp was an important 
illustration of and evidence for evolution, tried ex- 
periments on some sixty new-born babies. He found 
that they could sustain iheir whole weight by the 
arms alone when their hands were clasped about a 
slender rod. They grasped the rod at once and could 
be lifted ironx the bed by it and kept in this position 
about half a minute. He argued that this early strength 
of arm, which soon begins to disappear, was a sur- 
vival from the remote period when the baby's ances- 
tors were monkeys or monkey-like people who lived 
in trees. 

However this may be, during the first w^eek the 
baby's hands are mtich about his face. By accident 

*W. Preyer, Professor of Physiology, of Jena, author of 
"The Mind of the Child." D. Appleton & Co. 

tDr. Robinson, Physician and Evolutionist, paper in The 
Eclectic, Vol. 29. 



Reflex 
Grasping 



Beginnings 

of Will Power 



Will 



8 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

they reach the mouth, they are sucked ; the child feels 
himself suck its own fist ; he feels his fist being 
sucked. Some day it will occur ij him that that fist 
belongs to the same being who owns the sucking 
mouth. But at this point, as Miss Shinn* has ob- 
served, the baby is often surprised and indignant that 
he cannot move his arms around and at the same time 
suck his fist. This discomfort helps him to make an 
effort to get his fist into his mouth and keep it there, 
and this effort shows his will beginning to take pos- 
session of his hands and arms. 
Growth Since any faculty grows by its own exercise, just 

a5 muscles grow by exercise, every time the baby suc- 
ceeds in getting his hands to his mouth as a result of 
desire, every time that he succeeds in grasping an 
object as a result of desire, his will power grows. 
Action of this nature brings in new sensations, and 
the brain centers used for recording such sensations 
grow. 

As the sensations multiply, he compares them, and 
an idea is born. For the beginnings of mental devel- 
opment no other mechanism is actually needed than a 
brain and a hand and the nerves connecting them. 
Laura Bridgeman and Helen Keller, both of them 
deaf and blind, received their education almost entirely 
through their hands, and yet they were unusually capa- 
ble of thinking. The child's hands, then, from the 
beginning, are the servants of his brain — instruments 

*Miss Millicent Shinn, American Psychologist, author of ""Bi- 
ography of a Baby." 



HOJV THE CHILD DEVELOPS. 



by means of which he carries iin])ressions from the 
outer world to the scat of consciousness, and by which 
in turn he imprints his consciousness upon the outer 
world. 

The averag:e baby does not begin to grasp objects 
with intention before the fourth month. The first 
grasping seems to be done by feeling, without the aid 
of the eye, and is done with the fingers with no at- 
tempt to oppose the thiunb to them. So closely does 
the use of the thumbs set opposite the fingers in 
grasping coincide with the first grasping with the aid 
of sight, that some Dbservers have been led to be- 
lieve that as soon as the baby learns to use its thumb 
in this way he proves that he is beginning to grasp 
with intention. 

The order of development seems to be, £rst, automa- 
tism, the muscles contracting of themselves in response 
to nervous stimuli ; second, instinct, the inherited wis- 
dom of the race, which discovered ages ago that the 
hand could be used to greater advantage when the 
thumb was separated from the fingers ; and thirdly, 
the child's own intelligence and will making use of 
this natural and inherited machinery. This order holds 
true of the development, not only of the hand, but 
of the whole organism. 

A little earlier than this, during the third month, 
the baby first looks upon his own hands and notices 
them. Darwin tells us that his boy looked at his own 
hands and seemed to study them until his eyes crossed. 



Intentional 
Grasping 



Order of 
Development 



Looking 



10 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

About the same time the child notices his foot and uses 
liis hand to carry it to its mouth. It is some time later 
that he discovers that he can move his feet without 
his hands. 
Tearing About this time, three or four months old, the child 

begins to tear paper into pieces, and may be easily 
taught to let the pieces that have found their way into 
his mouth be taken out again. Now, too, he begins 
to throw things, or to drop them ; then he wants to 
get them back again, and the patient mother must pick 
them up and give them back many times. Sometimes 
a baby is punished for this proclivity, but it is really 
a part of his development, and at least once a day he 
should be allowed to play in this manner to his heart's 
content. It is tact, not discipline, that is needed, and 
the more he is helped the sooner he will live through 
this stage and come to the next point where he begins 
to throw things. 
Throwing ^^ ^^^^^ stagc, of coursc, he must be given the 

proper things to throw — small, bright-colored worsted 
balls, bean-bags, and other harmless objects. If he is 
allowed to discover the pleasure thc:"e is in smashing 
glass and china, he will certainly be, ior a time, a very 
destructive little person. When later he is able to 
creep — to throw his ball and creep after it — he will 
amuse himself for hours at a time, and so relieve those 
who have patiently attended him up to this time. In 
general zvc may lay down the rule that the more time 
and attention of the right sort is given to a young 



The 



HOJV THE CHILD DEVELOPS. ii 

cJiild, the less ivill need to be given as he grozvs older. 
It is poor economy to neglect a young- child, and try 
to make it up on the growing boy or girl. This is 
to substitute a complicated and difficult problem for a 
simple one. 

It is some time before a child's will can so overcome 
his newly-acquired tendency to grasp every possible ^ScT 
object that he can keep his hands off of anything that 
invites him. The many battles between mothers and 
children on the subject of not touching forbidden 
things are at this stage a genuine wrong and injus- 
tice to the child. So young a child is scarcely more 
responsible for touching whatever he can reach than 
is a piece of steel for being drawn toward a powerful 
magnet. Preyer says that it is years before voluntary 
inhibitions of grasping become possible. The child 
has not the necessary brain machinery. Commands 
and spatting of the hands create bewilderment and 
tend to build up a barrier between mother and child. 
Instead of doing such things, simply put high out of 
reach and sight whatever the child must not touch. 

Another way in which young children are often 
made to suffer because of the ignorance of parents is 
the leaving of undesired food on the child's plate. 
Every child, when he does not want his food, pushes 
the plate away from him, and many mothers push it 
back and scold. The real truth is that the motor sug- 
gestion of the food upon the plate is so strong that 
the child feels as if he were being forced to eat it 



srunv or < iin.n lipr. 



Tlio Tlir«o 
Months' Baby 



Danger of 
Forcing 



Creeping 



I'vory limo lie hxiks at the plate; to escai)c from eating 
it ho is obliged to push it out of sij^ht. 

I'.ut this (lifficiihy comes hitcr. Now we are con- 
eenu-d with a three-moiitlis-old baby. At this staj^e 
thi' child is usually able to balance his head, to sit uj) 
aj^ainst pillows, to seize and t;rasp objects, and to 
hold out his arms when he wishes to be taken. Al- 
thouj^h he may have made a number of efforts to sit 
erect, and may have succet'ded for a few mimites al a 
time, he still is f.ar from beini^^ able to sit alone, unsup- 
l)orte<l. 'Phis he does not accomplish until the fifth 
vv sixth month. 

'inhere is nothing- to be gained by trying* to make 
him sit alone sooner; indeed, there is danger in it — 
danger in forcing young bones and muscles to do 
work beyond their strength, and danger also to the 
nerves. It is safe to say that a itoniial child always 
exercises all ils faculties to the utmost unthout need 
of itri^ini^, and any exercise beyond the point of natural 
fatia^ue. if persisted in, is sure to bri)ii:^ about abnormal 
results. 

The first efforts toward creeping often ajipear in the 
bath when the child turns over and raises himself 
upon his hands and knees. This is a sign that he 
might creep sooner, if he were not impeded by cloth- 
ing. He sIk)uU1 be allowed to sj^read himself upon a 
blanket every day for an hour or two, and to get on 
his knees as fre(|uently as he ])l(.'ases. Often he needs 
a little help to make him creep forward, for most 



iroir run child nnvRLors. 13 

babies creep backward at first, their arms being 
stronger than their legs. Here the mother may safely 
interfere, pushing the legs as they ought to go and 
showing the child how to manage himself; for very 
often he becomes much excited over his inability to 
creep forward. 

The climbing instinct begins to appear by this time cumWnr 
— the seventh month — and here the stair-case has its 
great advantage. It ought not to be shut from him 
by a gate, but he should be taught how to climb up 
and down it in safety. To do this, start him at the 
head of the stairs, and, you yourself being below him, 
draw first one knee and then the other over the step, 
thus showing him how to creep backward. Two les- 
sons of about twenty minutes each will be sufficient. 
The only danger is in creeping down head foremost, 
but if he once learns thoroughly to go backward, and 
has not been allowed the otlier way at all, he will never 
dream of trying it. In going down backward, if he 
should slip, he can easily save himself by catching 
the stairs with his hands as he slips past. 

The child who creeps is often later in his attempts 
to walk than the child who does not; and, therefore, 
when he is ready to walk, his legs will be all the 
stronger, and the danger of bow-legs will be past. 
As long as the child remains satisfied with creeping, he 
is not yet ready either mentally or physically for 
walking. 



14 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



standing H tlic cliilcl liES bceii allowcd to creep about freely, 

he will soon be standing. He will pull himself to his 
feet by means of any chair, table, or indeed anything 
that he may get hold of. To avoid injuring him, no 
flimsy chairs or spindle-legged tables should be allowed 
in his nursery. He will next begin to sidle around a 
chair, shuffling his feet in a vague fashion, and some- 
times, needing both of his hands to seize some coveted 
object, he will stand without clinging, leaning on his 
stomach. An unhurried child may remain at this 
stage for weeks. 

Walking Let alone, as he should be, he will walk without 

knowing how he does it, and will be the stronger for 
having overcome his difficulties himself. He should 
not be coaxed to stand or walk. The things in his 
room actually urge him to come and get them. Any 
further persuasion is forced, and may urge him be- 
yond his strength. 

Walking-chairs and baby- jumpers are injurious in 
this respect. They keep the child from his native free- 
dom of sprawling, climbing, and pulling himself up. 
The activity they do permit is less varied and helpful 
than the normal activity, and the child, restricted from 
the preparatory motions, begins to walk too soon. 

Alternate ^^ cuHous fact iu tlic growth of children is that they 

Growth seem to grow heavier for a certain period, and then 

to grow taller for a similar period. That is, a very 

young baby, say, two months old, will grow fatter for 

about six weeks, and then for the next six weeks will 



HOW THE CHILD DEVELOPS. 15 

grow longer, while the child of six years changes his 
manner of growth every three or four months. These 
periods are variable, or at least their law has not yet 
been established, but the observant mother can soon 
make the period out for herself in the case of her 
own child. For two or three days, when the manner 
of growth seems to be changing from breadth to 
length, and vice versa, the children are likely to be 
unusually nervous and irritable, and these aberrations 
must, of course, be patiently borne with. 

In all these things some children develop earlier 
than others, but too early development is to be re- 
gretted. Precocious children are always of a delicate 
nervous organization. Fiske* has proved to us that 
the reason why the human young is so far more help- 
less and dependent than the young of any other species 
is because the activities of the human race have be- 
come so many, so widely varied, and so complex, that 
they could not fix themselves in the nervous struc- 
ture before birth. There are only a few things that 
the chick needs to know in order to lead a successful 
chicken life ; as a consequence these few things are 
well impressed upon the small brain before ever he 
chips the shell ; but the baby needs to learn a great 
many things — so many that there is no time or room 
to implant them before birth, or, indeed, in the few 
years immediately succeeding birth. To hurry the 



Precocity 



*John Flske, writer on Evolutionary Philosophy. His theory 
of infancy is perhaps his most important contribution to 



Ripening 



ifi STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

Early clcvclopmeiit, therefore, of certain few of these facul- 
ties, Uke the faculties of talking, and walking, of 
imitation or response, is to crowd out many other fac- 
ulties perhaps just beginning to grow. Such forcing 
will limit the child's future development to the few 
faculties whose growth is thus early stimulated. Pre- 
cocity in a child, therefore, is a thing to be deplored. 
His early ripening foretells an early decay; and a 
wise mother is she who gives her child ample opportu- 
nity for growing, but no urging. 

Ample opportunity for growth includes (i) Whole- 
some surroundings, (2) Sufficient sleep, (3) Proper 
clothing, (4) Nourishing food. We will take up these 
topics in order. 

WHOLESOME SURROUNDINGS. 

The whole house in which the child lives ought to 
be well warmed and equally well aired. Sunlight also 
is necessary to his well-being. If it is impossible to 
have this in every room, as sometimes happens in city 
homes, at least the nursery must have it. In the cen- 
tral States of the l^nion plants and trees exposed to the 
southern sun put forth their leave? two weeks sooner 
than those exposed to the north. The infant cannot 
fail to profit by the same condition, for the young 
child may be said to lead in. part a vegetative as well 
as an animal life . and to need air and sunshine and 
warmth as much as plants do. The very best room 
in the house is not too gfood for the nurserv, for in 




JOHN B^ISKE 



i8 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Tempera- 
ture 



Daily 
Outing 



no Other room is such important and delicate work 
being done. 

The temperature is a matter of importance. It 
should not be decided by guess-work, but a ther- 
mometer should be hung upon a wall at a place 
equally removed from draft and from the source of 
heat. The temperature for children during the first 
year should be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the 
day and not lower than 50 degrees at night. Children 
who sleep with the mother will not be injured by a 
temperature 5 to 20 degrees lower at night. 

It is important to provide means for the ingress of 
fresh air. It is not sufficient to air the room from 
another room, unless that other room has in it an 
open window. Even then the nursery windows should 
be opened wide from fifteen minutes to half an hour 
night and morning, while the child is in another room ; 
and this even when the weather is at zero or below. 
It does not take long to warm up a room that has 
been aired. Perhaps the best means of obtaining the 
ingress of fresh air without creating a draft upon 
the floor, where the baby spends so much of his time, 
is to raise the window six inches at the top or bot- 
tom and insert a board cut to fit the aperture. 

But no matter how well ventilated the nursery may 
be, all children more than six weeks old need unmodi- 
fied outside air, and need it every day, no matter 
what the weather, unless they are sick. 



SLEEP. 19 

The daily outing secures them better appetites, quiet 
sleep, and calmer nerves. Let them be properly clothed 
and protected in their carriages, and all weathers are 
good for them. 

Children who take their naps in their baby-carriages 
may with advantage be wheeled into a sheltered spot, 
covered warmly, and left to sleep in the outer air. 
They are likely to sleep longer than in the house, and 
find more refreshment in their sleep. 

SmrFICIENT SLEEP. 

Few children in America get as much sleep as they 
really need. Preyer gives the record of his own child, 
and the hours which this child found necessary for 
his sleep and growth may be taken for a standard. In 
the first month, sixteen, in full, out of twenty-four 
hours were spent in sleep. The sleep rarely lasted 
beyond two hours at a time. In the second month 
about the same amount was spent in sleep, which lasted 
from three to six hours at a time. In the sixth month, 
it lasted from six to eight hours at a time, and began 
to diminish to fifteen hours in the twenty-four. In 
the thirteenth month, fourteen hours' sleep daily; in 
the seventeenth, prolonged sleep began, ten hours 
without interruption ; in the twentieth, prolonged sleep 
became habitual, and sleep in the day-time was re- 
duced to two hours. In the third year, the night sleep 
lasted regularly from eleven to twelve hours, and 
sleep in the daytime was no longer required. 



Naps 



20 STUDY 01' CHILD LIFE. 

Trcyer's record stops here. But it may be added 
that children from three to eip^ht years still require 
eleven hours' sleep; and, althouj;h the child o{ three 
may not need a daily nap. it is well for him, until he 
is six years old, to lie still for an hour in the middle 
of the day, amusinc^ himself with a picture book or 
paper and pencil, hut not ])layed with or talktnl to by 
any otlu'r ])erson. Such a rest in the luiddle of the 
day favors the relaxation of muscles and nerves and 
hreaks the strain of a lonj;' day of intense activity. 

PROPER CLOTHING. 

Proper elothin^- foi- ;i eliild ineludes thrix- things: 
(^-d) lC(|ual distnhution of waniilh. (h) ['"reedom from 
lest ra i n 1 , ( c ) 1 J i; h I w e i l; h I . 

I'.qiial (lislrihiilioii of -iCariiilli is of j^real impor- 
tance, and is st-ldom ;iltained. The ordin.ary dress for 
a younj^' bahv, for example, leaves the arms and the 
upi)er part of the chest unprotected by more than one 
thickness of (lannel and one of cotton^the shirt and 
the dress. About (he child's middle, on the contrary, 
Ihere are two thicknesses o{ Ikannel — a shirt and band 
— and live of eotton, i. e.. the doid)le bands of the 
white and Hamiel pettico;its. and the dress, (^ver the 
leijs, attain, are two thicknesses of flannel and two of 
cotton, i. e., the pinnius;- blanket. ilaiuieJ skirt, white 
skirt, and dress. The child in a comfortably warm 
house needs two thicknesses of ilannel and one of cot- 
ton all over it. and no more. 



CLOTHING. 



21 



The practice of ptiltiiiij cxlrn wrnppinf^fs about the 
abdomen is responsible for uiuUie tenderness of those 
organs. Dr. Grosvenor, of Chicago, who designed a 
model costume for a baby, which he called the Ger- 
trude suit, says that many cases of rupture are due 
to bandaging of the abdomen. When the child cries 
the abdominal walls normally expand ; if they are 
tightly bound, they cannot do this, and the pressure 
U])on one single part, which the bandages may not hold 
quite firmly, becomes overwhelming, and results in 
rupture. Dr. Grosvenor also thinks that many cases 
of weak lungs, and even of consumption in later life, 
arc due to the tight bands of the skirts pressing upon 
the soft ribs of the young child, and narrowing the 
lung space. 

Freedom from restraint. Not only should the 
clothes not bind the child's body in any way, but they 
should not be so long as to prevent free exercise of 
the legs. The pinning-blanket is objectionable on this 
account. I< is difficult for the child to kick in it; 
and as we nave seen before, kicking is necessary to 
the proper development of the legs. Undue length of 
skirt o])crates in the same way — the weight of cloth 
is a check upon activity. The first garment of a young 
baby should not be more than a yard in length from 
the neck to the bottom of the hem, and three-quarters 
of a yard is enough for the iimer garment. 

The sleeves, too, should be large and loose, and the 
arm-size should be roomy, so as to prevent chafing. 



The 

Gertrude 

Suit 



Objection 
to the 
Pinning 
Blanket 



22 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

The sleeves may be tied in at the wrist with a ribbon 
to insure warmth. 

Lightness of zwiglit. The underclothing- should be 
made of pure wool, so as to gain the greatest amount 
of warmth from the least weight. In the few cases 
where wool would cause irritation, a silk and wool 
mixture makes a softer but more expensive garment. 
Under the best conditions, clothes restrict and impede 
free development somewhat, and the heavier they are 
the more they impede it. Therefore, the effort should 
be to get the greatest amount of warmth with the least 
possible weight. Knit garments attain this most per- 
fectly, but the next best thing is all-wool flannel of a 
line grade. The weave known as stockinet is best of 
all, because goods thus made cling to the body and yet 
restrict its activity very little. 

Tlie best garments for a baby are made according to 
the accompanying diagram . 
Princess They cousist of three garments, to be worn one 

over the other, each one an inch longer in every way 
than the underlying one. The first is a princess gar- 
ment, made of white stockinet, which takes the place 
of shirt, pinning-blanket, and band. Before cutting 
this out, a box-pleat an inch and a half wide should 
be laid down the middle of the front, and a side pleat 
three-fourths of an inch wide on either side of the 
])lacket in the back. The sleeve should have a tuck an 
inch wide. These tucks and pleats are better run in 
by hand, so that they may be easily ripped. As the 



CLOTHING. 



23 



baby grows and the flannel shrinks, these tucks and 
pleats can be let out. 

The next garment, which goes over this, is made in 




J FRONT V BA^Cra 
i^WAlSTA^ 




DIAGRAM OF THE "GERTRUDE" SUIT. 



the same way, only an inch larger in every measure- 
ment. It is made of baby flannel, and takes the place 



24 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

of the flannel petticoat with its cotton band. Over 
these two garments any ordinary dress may be worn. 
Dressed in this suit, the child is evenly covered with 
two thicknesses of flannel and one of cotton. As the 
skirts are rather short, however, and he is expected to 
move his legs about freely, he may well wear long 
white wool stockings. 

As the child grows older, the principles underlying 
this method of clothing should be borne in mind, and 
clothes should be designed and adapted so as to meet 
these three requirements. 

FOOD. 

Natural The natural food of a young baby Is his mother's 

milk, and no satisfactory substitute for it has yet been 
found. Some manufactured baby foods do well for 
certain children ; to others they are almost poison ; 
and for none of them are they sufficient. The milk 
of the cow is not designed for the human infant. It 
contains too much casein, and is too difficult of diges- 
tion. Various preparations of milk and grains are rec- 
ommended by nurses and physicians, but no conscien- 
tious nurse or physician pretends that any of them 
begins to equal the nutritive value of human milk. 
More women can nurse their babies than now think 
they can ; the advertisements of patent foods lead 
them to think the matter of little importance, and 
they do not make the necessary efifort to preserve and 
increase the natural supply of milk. The family phy- 



Food 



FOOD. 25 

sician can almost always tetter the condition of the Bottie-fed 
mother who really desires to nurse her own child, and 
he should be consulted and his directions obeyed. The 
importance of a really great effort in this direction is 
shown by the fact that the physical culture records, 
now so carefully kept in many of our schools and col- 
leges, prove that bottle-fed babies are more likely to 
be of small stature, and to have deficient bones, teeth 
and hair, than children who have been fed on mother's 
milk. 

The food question is undoubtedly the most impor- simple 
tant problem to the physical welfare of the child, and 
has, as well, a most profound effect upon his disposi- 
tion and character. Indiscriminate feeding is the cause 
of much of the trouble and worry of mothers. This 
subject is taken up at length in other papers of this 
course, and it will suffice to say here that the table o£ 
the family with young children should be regulated 
largely by the needs of the growing sons and daugh- 
ters. The simplified diet necessary may well be of 
benefit to other members of the family. 



Diet 



FAULTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 

The child born of perfect parents, brought up per- 
fectly, in a perfect environment, would probably have 
no faults. Even such a child, however, would be at 
times inconvenient, and would do and say things at 
variance with the order of the adult world. Therefore 
lie might seem to a hasty, prejudiced observer to be 
naughty. And, indeed, imperfectly born, imperfectly 
trained as children now are,- many of their so-called 
faults arc no more than such inconvenient crossings 
of an immature will with an adult will. 

No grown person, for instance, likes to be inter- 
rupted, and is likely to regard the child who inter- 
rupts him . " wilfully naughty. No young child, on 
the contrary, objects to being interrupted in his speech, 
though he may object to being interrupted in his play; 
and he cannot understand why an adult should set 
so much store on the quiet listening which is so infre- 
quent in his own experience. Grown persons object to 
noise ; children delight in it. Grown persons like to 
have things kept in their places ; to a child, one place 
is as good as another. Grown persons have a preju- 
dice in favor of cleanliness ; children like to swim, but 
hate to wash, and have no objections whatever to 
grimy hands and faces. None of these things imply 
the least degree of obliquity on the child's part; and 
yet it is safe to say that nine-tenths of the children 




JEAN PAUL RICHTER 



28 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Real 

Faults 



Training 

the Will 



who are punished are punished for some of these 
things. The remedy for these inconveniences is time 
and patience. The child, if left to himself, without a 
word of admonishment, would probably change his 
conduct in these respects, merely by the force of imi- 
tation, provided that the adults around him set him 
a persistent example of courtesy, gentleness, and clean- 
liness. 

The faults that are real faults, as Richter* says, are 
those faults which increase with age. These it is that 
need attention rather than those that disappear of 
themselves as the child grows older. This rule ought 
to be put in large letters, that every one who has to 
train children may be daily reminded by it ; and not 
exercise his soul and spend his force in trying to over- 
come little things which may perhaps be objectionable, 
but which will vanish to-morrow. Concentrate your 
energies on the overcoming of such tendencies as may 
in time develop into permanent evils. 

To accomplish this, you must, of course, train the 
child's own will, because no one can force another 
person into virtue against his will. The chief object 
of all training is, as we shall see in the next section, 
to lead the child to love righteousness, to prefer right 
doing to wrong doing; to make right doing a perma- 
nent desire. Therefore, in all the procedures about 



*Jean Paul Richter, "Der cinsige." German writer and 
philosopher. His rather whimsical and fragmentary book on 
education, called "Levana," contains some rare scraps of wis- 
dom much used by later writers on educational topics. 



FAULTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 



29 



to be sugp^ested, an effort is made to convince the 
child of the ughncss and painfuhiess of wrong doing. 

Pnnishment, as Herbert Spencer" agrees with Froe- 
belf in pointing out, should be as nearly as possible a 
representation of the natural result of the child's 
action ; that is, the fault should be made to punish 
itself as much as possible without the interference of 
any outside person; for the object is not to make the 
child bend his will to the will of another, but to make 
him see the fault itself as an undesirable thinsf. 

The effort to break the child's will has long been 
recognized as disastrous by all educators. A broken 
will is a worse misfortune than a broken back. In 
the latter case the man is physically crippled ; in the 
former, he is morally crippled. It is only a strong, 
unbroken, persistent will that is adequate to achieve 
self-mastery, and mastery of the difficulties of life. 
The child who is too yielding and obedient in his early 
days is only too likely to be weak and incompetent in 
his later days. The habit of submission to a more 
mature judgment is a bad habit to insist upon. The 
child should be encouraged to think out things for 
himself; to experiment and discover for himself why 
his ideas do not work ; and to refuse to give them up 
until he is genuinely convinced of their impractica- 
bilitv. 



Natural 
Punishment 



Breaking 
the Will 



♦Herbert Spencer. English Philosopher and Scientist. His 
book on "Education" is sound and practical. 

tFreidrich Froebel, German Philosopher and Educator, 
founder of the Kindergarten system, and inaugurator of the 
new education. His two great books are "The Education of 
Man" and "The Mother Play." 



30 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Emergencies 



It is true that there are emergencies in which his 
immature judgment and undisciplined will must yield 
to wiser judgment and steadier will ; but such yield- 
ing should not be suffered to become habitual. It is a 
safety valve merely, to be employed only when the 
pressure of circumstances threatens to become danger- 
ous. An engine whose safety valve should be always 
in operation could never generate much power. Nor 
is there much difficulty in leading even a very strong- 
willed and obstinate child to give up his own way 
under extraordinary circumstances. If he is not in 
the habit of setting up his own will against that of his 
mother or teacher, he will not set it up when the quick, 
unfamiliar word of command seems to fit in with the 
unusual circumstances. Many parents practice cry- 
ing "Wolf ! wolf !" to their children, and call the 
practice a drill of self-control ; but they meet inevitably 
with the familiar consequences : when the real wolf 
comes the hackneyed cry, often proved false, is dis- 
regarded. 

When the will is rightly trained, disobedience is a 
fault that rarely appears, because, of coursCj- where 
obedience is seldom required, it is seldom refused. 
The child needs to obey — that is true ; but so does 
his mother need to obey, and all other persons about 
him. They all need to obey God, to obey the laws of 
nature, the impulses of kindness, and to follow after 
the ways of wisdom. Where such obedience is a set- 
tled habit of the entire household, it easily, and, as 




HERBERT SPENCER 



32 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

it were, unconsciously, becomes the habit of the child. 
Where such obedience is not the habit of the house- 
hold, it is only with great difficulty that it can become 
the habit of the child. His will must set itself 
against its instinct of imitativeness, and his small 
house, not yet quite built, must be divided against 
itself. Probably nO' child ever rendered entire obe- 
dience to any adult who did not himself hold 
his own wishes in subjection. As Emerson says: 
"In dealing- with my child, my Latin and my Greek, 
my accomplishments and my money, stead me 
nothing, but as much soul as I have avails. If I am 
willful, he sets his will against mine, one for one, and 
leaves me, if I please, the degradation of beating him 
by my superiority of strength. But, if I renounce my 
will and act for the soul, setting that up as an umpire 
between us two, out of his young eyes looks the same 
soul ; he reveres and loves with me." 
Negative Supposc the child to be brought to such a stage 

that he is willing to do anything his father or moth- 
er says ; suppose, even, that they never tell him 
to do anything that he does not afterwards 
discover to be reasonable and just; still, what has he 
gained ? For twenty years he has not had the respon- 
sibility for a single action, for a single decision, right 
or wrong. What is permitted is right to him ; what 
is forbidden is wrong. When he goes out into the 
world without his parents, what will happen ? At the 
best he will not lie, or steal, or commit murder. That 



Goodness 



FAULTS AND Til EI R RUM EDI ES. ?,?, 

Is, he will do none of these thinjijs in their bald and 
simple form. 

Hnt in their he,<;iiinin^s these are hidden under a 
■nask of virtue and he has never been trained to look 
oeneath that mask ; as happened to Richard h\'veril/ 
sin mav sprint^ upon him unaware. Some one else, 
all his life, has labeled things for him ; he is not in 
the habit of judging for himself. He is blind, deaf, 
and helpless — a plaything of circumstances. It is a 
chance whether he falls into sin or remains blameless. 

Disobedience, then, in a true sense, does not mean r^^i 
failure to do as he is told to do. It means failure to 
do the things that he knows to be right. He must be 
taught to listen and obey the voice of his own con- 
science ; and if that voice should ever speak, as it 
sometimes does, differently from the voice of the con- 
science of his parents or teachers, its dictates must still 
be respected by these older and wiser persons, and he 
must be permitted to do this thing which in itself may 
be foolish, but which is not foolish to him. 

And, on the other hand, the child who will have his Liberty 
own way even when he knows it to be wrong should 
be allowed to have it within reasonable limits. Richter 
says, leave to him the sorry victory, only exercising suf- 
ficient ingenuity to make sure that it is a sorry one. 
What he must be taught is that it is not at all a pleasure 
to have his own way, unless his own way happens to be 
right ; and this he can only be taught by having his own 
way when the results are plainly disastrous. Every time 

•"The Ordeal of Richard Feverll," by George Meredith. 



34 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

lliat a willful child docs what he wants to do, and 
suiTcrs sharply for it, he learns a lesson that nothing 
hut this experience can teach him. 
Self. But his sutTering- must he plainly seen to he the re- 

^"mont '"^"It ^^ 'lis iked, and not the result ot his mother's 
answer. l"or example, a very young child who is tleter- 
mined to play with fire may be allowed to touch the 
hot lamp or a stove, whenever alYairs can he so ar- 
ranged that he is not likely to burn himself too se- 
verely. One such lesson is worth all the hand-spat- 
tings and cries of "No, no !" ever resorted to by 
anxious parents. If he pulls down the blocks that 
you have built up for him, they should stay down, 
while you gel out of the room, if possible, in order 
'to evade all responsibility for that unpleasant result. 

Prohibitions are almost useless. In order to con- 
vince yourself of this, get some one to command yon 
not to move your right arm. or to wink your eye. You 
will find it almost impossible to obey for even a few 
moments. The desire to move your arm, which was 
not at all conscious before, will become overpowering. 
'I'lie iirohibilion acts like a suggestion, and is an impli- 
cation that you wouUl do the negative act unless you 
were commanded not to. Miss Alcott, in "Little Men," 
well illustrates this fact in the story of the children 
who were told not to put beans up their noses, and 
who straightway tilled their noses with beans. 

As we shall see in the next section, Froebel meets 
this difficulty by substituting positive commands for 



FAULTS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 35 

prohibitions ; that is, he tells the child to do instead o£ positive 

, „,. , ., ,1 1 1 Commands 

telling him not to do. liedeniann'- says that example 
is the first great evolutionary teacher, and liberty is 
the second. In the overcoming of disobedience, no 
other teachers are needed. The method may be 
tedious ; it may be many years before the erratic will 
is finally led to work in orderly channels; but there 
is no possibility of abridging the process. There is 
no short and sudden cure for disobedience, and the 
only hope for final cure is the steady working of these 
two great forces, example and liberty. 

To illustrate the principles already indicated, we 
will consider some specific problems together with sug- 
gestive treatment for each, 

aUICK TEMPER. 

This, as well as irritability and nervousness, very ^^^^^ ^^ 
often springs from a wrong physical condition. The Temper 
digestion may be bad, or the child may be overstim- 
ulated. He may not be sleeping enough, or may not 
get enough outdoor air and exercise. In some cases 
the fault appears because the child lacks the discipline 
of young companionship. Even the most exemplary 
adult cannot make up to the child for the influence of 
other children. He perceives the difference between , 
himself and these giants about him, and the percep- 
tion sometimes makes him furious. His struggling 
individuality finds it difficult to maintain itself under 
the pressure of so many stronger personalities. He 

*TJe<Jemanil, German Psychologist, 



36 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

makes, therefore, spasmodic and violent attempts of 
self-assertion, and these attempts go under the name 
of fits of temper. 

The child who is not ordinarily strong enough to 
assert himself effectively will work himself up into a 
passion in order to gain strength, much as men some- 
times stimulate their courage by liquor. In fact, pas- 
sion is a sort of moral intoxication. 
Remedy— I^^it whether the fits of passion are physical or 

and" Quiet moral, the immediate remedy is the same — his environ- 
ment must be promptly changed and his audience re- 
moved. He needs solitude and quiet. This does not 
mean shutting him into a closet, but leaving him alone 
in a quiet room, with plenty of pleasant things about. 
This gives an opportunity for the disturbed organism 
to right itself, and for the will to recover its normal 
tone. Some occupation should be at hand — blocks or 
other toys, if he is too' young to read ; a good book or 
two, such as Miss Alcott's "Little Men" and "Little 
Women," when he is old enough to- read. 

If he is destructive in his passion, he must be put 
in a room where there are very few breakables to 
tempt him. If he does break anything he must be 
required to help mend it again. To shout a threat to 
this effect through the door when the storm of temper 
is still on, is only to goad him into fresh acts of re- 
bellion. Let him alone while he is in this temporarily 
insane state, and later, when he is sorry and wants to 
be good, help him to repair the mischief he has 



QUICK TEMPER. 37 

wrought. It is as foolish to argue with or to threaten 
the child in this state as it would be were he a patient 
in a lunatic asylum. 

It is sometimes impossible to get an older child to 
go into retreat. Then, since he cannot be carried, and 
he is not open to remonstrance or commands, go out 
of the room yourself and leave him alone there. At 
any cost, loneliness and quiet must be brought to 
bear upon him. 

Such outbursts are exceedingly exhausting, using 
up in a few minutes as much energy as would suf- 
fice for many days of ordinary activity. After the 
attack the child needs rest, even slee]i, and usually 
seeks it himself. The desire should be encouraged. 

Every reasonable ])recaution should be taken against Precautions 
the recurrence of the attacks, for every lapse into this 
excited state makes more certain the next lapse and 
weakens the nervous control. This does not mean 
that you should give up any necessary or right regu- 
lations for fear of the child's temper. If the child 
sees that you do this, he will on occasion deliberately 
work himself up into a passion in order to get his 
own way. But while you do not relax any just regu- 
lations, you may safely help him t(j meet them. Give 
him warning. For instance, do not spring any dis- 
agreeable commands upon him. Have his duties as 
systematized as possible so that he may know what 
to expect ; and do not under any circumstances nag 
him nor allow other children to tease him. 



to be Taken 



38 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

sul£enness. 

This fault likewise often has a physical cause, seated 
very frequently in the liver. See that the child's 
food is not too heavy. Give him much fruit, and in- 
sist upon vigorous exercise out of doors. Or he may 
perhaps not have enough childish pleasures. For 
while most children are overstimulated, there still 
remain some children whose lives are unduly color- 
less and eventless. A sullen child is below the normal 
level of responsiveness. He needs to be roused, wak- 
ened, lifted out of himself, and made to take an active 
interest in other persons and in the outside world 
Inheritance In many cases sullenness is an inherited disposition 

ExanTple intensified by example. It is unchildlike and morbid 
to an unusual degree and very difficult to cure. The 
mother of a sullen child may well look to her own 
conduct and examine with a searching eye the pecu- 
liarities of her own family and of her husband's. She 
may then find the cause of the evil, and by removing 
the child from the bad example and seeing to it that 
every day contains a number of childish pleasures, 
she may win him away from a fault that will other- 
wise cloud his whole life. 

LYING. 

All lies are not bad, nor all liars immoral. A young 
child who cannot yet understand the obligations of 
truthfulness cannot be held morally accountable for 
his departure from truth. Lying is of three kinds. 



LYING. 



39 



(i.) The imaginative lie. (2.) The evasive lie. 
(3.) The politic lie. 

(i.) It is rather hard to call the imaginative lie 
a lie at all. It is so closely related to the creative in- 
stinct which makes the poet and novelist and which, 
common among the peasantry of a nation, is respon- 
sible for folk-lore and mythology, that it is rather an 
intellectual activity misdirected than a moral obliquity. 
Very imaginative children often do not know the dif- 
ference between what they imagine and what they act- 
ually see. Their mind's eye sees as vividly as their 
bodily eye ; and therefore they even believe their own 
statements. Every attempt at contradiction only brings 
about a fresh assertion of the impossible, which to the 
child becomes more and more certain as he hears him- 
self affirming its existence. 

Punishment is of no use at all in the attempt to 
regulate this exuberance. The child's large statements 
should be smiled at and passed over. In the meantime, 
he should be encouraged in every possible way tO' get 
a firm grasp of the actual world about him. Manual 
training, if it can be obtained, is of the greatest ad- 
vantage, and for a very young- child, the performance 
every day of some little act, which demands accuracy 
and close attention, is necessary. For the rest, wait; 
this is one of the faults that disappear with age. 

(2.) The lie of evasion is a form of lying which 
seldom appears when the relations between child and 
parents are absolutely friendly and open. However, 



Imaginative 
"Lying" 



The Lie of 

Evasion 



40 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

the child who is very desirous of approval may find 
it difficult to own up to a fault, even when he is cer- 
tain that the consequence of his offense will not be at 
all terrible. This is the more difficult, because the 
more subtle condition. It is obvious that the child 
who lies merely to avoid punishment can be cured of 
that fault by removing- from him the fear of punish- 
ment. To this end, he should be informed that there 
will be no punishment whatever for any fault that he 
freely confesses. For the chief object of punishment 
beiuij to make him face his own fault and to see it as 
something ugly and disagreeable, that object is ob- 
viously accomplished by a free and open confession, 
and no further punishment is required. 

But when the child in spite of such reassurance 
still continues to lie, both because he cannot bear to 
have you think him capable of wrong-doing, and be- 
cause he is not willing to acknowledge to himself that 
he is capable of wrong-doing, the situation becomes 
more complex. All you can do is to urge upon him 
the superior beauty of frankness ; to praise him and 
love him, especially when he does acknowledge a fault, 
thus leading him to see that the way to win your ap- 
proval — that approval which he desires so intensely — 
is to- face his own shortcomings with a steady eye and 
confess them to you unshrinkingly. 
The Politic (3.) The politic lie is of course the worst form 

of lying, partly because it is so unchildlike. This is 
the kind of fault that will grow with age ; and grow 



Lie 



LYING. 



41 



with such rapidity that the mother must set herself 
against it with all the force at her command. The 
child who lies for policy's sake, in order to achieve 
some end which is most easily achieved by lying, is a 
child led into wrong-doing by his ardent desire to get 
something or do something. Discover what this some- 
thing is, and help him to get it by more legitimate 
means. If you point out the straight path, and show 
the goal well in view at the end of it, he may be per- 
suaded not to take the crooked path. 

But there are occasionally natures that delight in 
crookedness and that even in early childhood. They 
would rather go about getting their heart's desire 
in some crooked, intricate, underhanded way than by 
the direct route. Such a fault is almost certain to be 
an inherited one ; and here again, a close study of the 
child's relatives will often help the mother to make 
a good diagnosis, and even suggest to her the line 
of treatment. 

In an extreme case, the family may unite in dis- 
believing the child who lies, not merely disbelieving 
him when he is lying, but disbelieving him all the time, 
no matter what he says. He must be made to see, 
and that without room for any further doubt, that 
the crooked paths that he loves do not lead to the 
goal his heart desires, but away from it. His words, 
not being true to the facts, have lost their value, and 
no one around him listens to them. He is, as it were, 
rendered speechless, and his favorite means of getting 



Inherited 
Crookedness 



Extreme 
Cases 



42 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

his own way is thus made utterly valueless. Such a 
remedy is in truth a terrible one. While it is being 
administered, the child suffers to the limit of his en- 
durance ; and it is only justified in an exertme case, 
and after the failure of all gentler means. 

JEALOUSY. 

Too often this deadly evil is encouraged in infancy, 
instead of being promptly uprooted as it ought to be. 
It is very amusing, if one does not consider the con- 
sequences, to see a little child slap and push away the 
father or the older brother, who attempts to kiss the 
mother; but this is another fault that grows with 
years, and a fault so deadly that once firmly rooted 
it can utterly destroy the beauty and happiness of an 
otherwise lovely nature. The first step toward over- 
coming it must be to make the reign of strict justice 
Justice ij-, ^|-,g home so obvious as to remove all excuse for the 

and 

Love gyji 'phe second step is to encourage the child's love 
for those very persons of whom he is most likely to 
be jealous. If he is jealous of the baby, give him spe- 
cial care of the baby. Jealousy indicates a tempera- 
ment overbalanced emotionally; therefore, put your 
force upon the upbuilding of the child's intellect. Give 
him responsibilities, make him think out things for 
himself. Call upon him to assist in the family con- 
claves. In every way cultivate his power of judg- 
ment. The whole object of the treatment should be 



JEALOUSY. 43 

to strengthen his intellect and to accustom his emo- 
tions to find outlet in wholesome, helpful activity. 

One wise mother made it a rule to pet the next to 
the baby. The baby, she said, was l30und to be 
petted a good deal because of its helplessness and 
sweetness, therefore she made a conscious effort to pet 
the next to the youngest, the one who had just been 
crowded out of the warm nest of mother's lap by 
the advent of the newcomer. Such a rule would go 
far to prevent the beginnings of jealousy. 

SELFISHNESS. 

This is a fault to which strong-willed children are 
especially liable. The first exercise of will-power af- 
ter it has passed the stage of taking possession of 
the child's own organism usually brings him into con- 
flict with those about him. To succeed in getting hold 
of a thing against the wish of someone else, and to 
hold on to it when someone else wants it, is to win a 
victory. The coveted object becomes dear, not so 
much for its own sake, as because it is a trophy. Such 
a child knows not the joy of sharing; he knows only 
the joys of wresting victory against odds. This is in- 
deed an evil that grows with the years. The child 
who holds onto his apple, his candy, or toy, fights tooth 
and nail everyone who wants to take it from him. 
and resists all coaxing, is liable to become a hard, 
sordid, grasping man, who stops at no obstacle to ac- 
complish his purpose. 



44 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



The Only 
Child 



Kindergarten 
a Remedy 



Yet in the beginning-, this fault often hides itself 
and escapes attention. The selfish child may be quiet, 
clean, and under ordinary circumstances, obedient. He 
may not even be quarrelsome ; and may therefore come 
imder a much less degree of discipline than his ob- 
streperous, impulsive, rebellious little brother. Yet, 
in reality, his condition calls for much more careful 
attention than docs the condition of the younger 
bi;other. 

However, the child who has no brother at all, cither 
older or younger, nor any sister, is almost invited 
by the fact of his isolation to fall into this sin. Only 
children may be — indeed, often are — precocious, 
bright, capable, and well-mannered, but they are sel- 
dom spontaneously generous. Their own small selves 
occupy an undue proportion of the family horizon, 
and therefore of their own. 

This is where the Kindergarten has its great value. 
In the true Kindergarten the children live under a 
dispensation of loving justice, and selfishness betrays 
itself instantly there, because it is alien to the whole 
spirit of the place. Showing itself, it is promptly 
condemned, and the child stands convicted by the only 
tribunal whose verdict really moves him — a jury of 
his peers. Normal children hate selfishness and con- 
demn it, and the selfish child himself, following the 
strong, childish impulse of imitation, learns to hate 
his own fault ; and so quick is the forgiveness of chil- 



SELFISHNESS. 



45 



dren that lie needs only to begin to repent before the 
circle of his mates receives him again. 

This is one reason why the Kindergarten takes chil- 
dren at such an early age. Aiming, as it does, to lay 
the foundations for right thinking and feeling, it must 
begin before wrong foundations are too deeply laid. 
Its gentle, searching methods straighten the strong 
will that is growing crooked, and strengthen the en- 
feebled one. 

But if the selfish child is too old for the Kindergar- 
ten, he should belong to a club. Consistent selfishness 
will not long be tolerated here. The tacit or outspoken 
rebuke of his mates has many times the force of a 
domestic rebuke; because thereby he sees himself, at 
least for a time, as his comrades see him, and never 
thereafter entirely loses his suspicion that they may 
be right. Their individual judgment he may defy, 
but their collective judgment has in it an almost magi- 
cal power, and convinces him in spite of himself. 

Whatever strong affections the selfish boy shows 
must be carefully cultivated. Love for another is the 
only sure cure for selfishness. If he loves animals, let 
him have pets, and give into his hands the whole re- 
sponsibility for the care of them. It is better to let 
the poor animals suffer some neglect, than to take 
away from the boy the responsibility for their condi- 
tion. They serve him only so .far as he can be in- 
duced to serve them. The chief rule for the cure of 
selfishness is, then, to watch every affection, small and 



Intimate 
Association 
a Help 



Cultivate 
Affections 



,ir) STUD]- Of' CHILD urn. 

large, encourage it, give it room to grow, and see to 
it that the child does not merely get delight ont of it, 
but that he works for it, that lie sacrifices himself for 
those whom he loves. 

LAZINESS. 

This condition is often normal, especially during 
adolescence. The developing boy or girl wants to lop 
and to lounge, to lie sprawled over the floor or the 
sofa. Quick movement is distasteful to him, and 
often has an undue effect upon the heart's action. He 
is normally dreamy, languid, indifferent, and subject 
to various moods. These things are merely tokens 
of the tremendous change that is going on within his 
organism, and which heavily drains his vitality. Cer- 
tain duties may, of course, be required of him at this 
stage, but they should be light and steady. He should 
not be expected to fill up chinks and run errands with 
joyful alacrity. The six- or eight-year-old may be 
called upon for these things, and not be harmed, but 
this is not true of the child between twelve and sev- 
enteen. He has absorbing business on hand and should 
not be too often called away from it. 

Laziness ordinarily accompanies rapid growth of 
any kind. The unusually large child, even if he has 
not yet reached the period of adolescence, is likely to 
be lazy. His nervous energies are deflected to keep 
up his growth, and his intelligence is often temporarily 
dulled by the rapidity of his increase in size. 



LAZINESS. 



A1 



Moreover, it is not natural for any child to hurry. 
Hurry is in itself both a result of nervous strain and 
a cause of it ; and grown people whose nerves have 
been permanently wrenched away from normal quietude 
and steadiness, often form a habit of hurry which 
makes them both unfriendly toward children and very 
bad for children. These young creatures ought to go 
along through their days rather dreamily and alto- 
gether serenely. Every turn of the screw to tighten 
their nerves makes more certain some form of early 
nervous breakdown. They ought to have work to do, 
of course, — enough of it to occupy both mind and body 
• — but it should be quiet, systematic, regular work, much 
of it performed almost automatically. Only occasion- 
ally should they be required to do things with a con- 
scious effort to attain speed. 

However, there is a degree of laziness difficult of 
definition which is abnormal ; the child fails to per- 
form any work with regularity, and falls behind both 
at school and at home. This may be the result of (i) 
poor assimilation, (2) of anaemia, or it may be (3) 
the first symptom of some disease. 

(i.) Poor assimilation may show itself either 
by (a) thinness and lack of appetite; (b) fat and ab- 
normal appetite; (c) retarded growth; or (d) irreg- 
ular and poorly made teeth and weak bones. 

(2.) Anaemia betrays itself most characteristically 
by the color of the lips and gums. These, instead of 
being red, are a pale yellowish pink, and the whole 



Hurry- 
Not Natural 



Abnormal 
Laziness 



Anaemia 



48 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

complexion has a sort of waxy pallor. In extreme 
cases this pallor even becomes greenish. As the dis- 
ease is accompanied with little pain, and few if any 
marked symptoms, beyond sleepiness and weakness, it 
often exists for some time without being suspected by 
the parents. 

(3.) The advent of many other diseases is an- 
nounced by a languid indifference to surroundings, and 
a slow response to the customary stimuli. The child's 
brain seems clouded, and a light form of torpor in- 
vades the whole body. The child, who is usually active 
and interested in things about him, but who loses his 
activity and becomes dull and irresponsive, should be 
carefully watched. It may be that he is merely chang- 
ing his form of growth — i. e., is beginning to grow tall 
after completion of his period of laying on flesh, ou 
vice versa. Or he may be entering upon the period of 
adolescence. But if it is neither of these things, a 
physician should be consulted. 
Monotony A uiildcr dcgrcc of laziness may be induced by a 

too monotonous round of duties. Try changing them. 
Make them as attractive as possible. For, of course, 
you do not require him to perform these duties for 
your sake, whatever you allow him to suppose about 
it, but chiefly for the sake of their influence on his 
character. Therefore, if the influence of any work is 
bad, you will change it, although the new work may 
not be nearly so much what you prefer to have him 
do. Whatever the work is, if it is only emptying 



LAZINESS. 



49 



waste-baskets, don't nag him, merely expect him to 
do it, and expect it steadily. 

In their earher years all children love to help mother. 
They like any piece of real work even better than 
play. If this love of activity was properly encour- 
aged, if the mother, permitted the child to help, even 
when he succeeded only in hindering, he might well 
become one of those fortunate persons who' love to 
work. This is the real time for preventing laziness. 
But if this early period has been missed, the next best 
thing is to take advantage of every spontaneous in- 
terest as it arises ; to hitch the impulse, as it were, to 
some task that must be steadily performed. For ex- 
ample, if the child wants to play with tools, help him 
to make a small water-wheel, or any other interest- 
ing contrivance, and keep him at it by various devices 
until he has brought it to a fair degree of comple- 
tion. Your aim is to stretch his will each time he at- 
tempts to do something a little further than it tends 
to go of itself ; to let him work a little past his first 
impulse, so that he may learn by degrees to work when 
work is needed, and not only when he feels like it. 



Helping: 



UNTIDINESS. 



Essentially a fault of immaturity as this is, we 
must beware how we measure it by a too severe adult 
standard. It is not natural for any young creature to 
take an interest in cleanliness. Even the young ani- 
mals are cared for in this respect by their parents ; the 



Neatnesi 
Not Natural 



so 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Example 



Eabit 



COW licks her calf ; the cat, her kittens ; and neither 
calf nor kittens seem to take much interest in the pro- 
cess. The conscious love of cleanliness and order 
grows with years, and seems to be largely a mat- 
ter of custom. The child who has always lived in 
decent surroundings by-and-by finds them necessary 
to his comfort, and is willing to make a degree of ef- 
fort to secure them. On the contrary, the street boy 
who sleeps in his clothes, does not know what it is to 
desire a well-made bed, and an orderly room. 

The obvious method of overcoming this difficulty, 
then, is not tO' chide the child for the fault, but to make 
him so accustomed to pleasant surroundings that he 
cannot help but desire them. The whole process of 
making the child love order is slow but sure. It con- 
sists in (i) Patient waiting on nature: first, keep the 
baby himself sweet and clean, washing the young 
child yourself, two or three times a day, and showing 
your delight in his sweetness ; dressing him so simply 
that he keeps in respectable order without the neces- 
sity of a painful amount of attention. (2) Example: 
He is to be accustomed to orderly surroundings, and 
though you ordinarily require him to put away some 
of his things himself, you do also assist this process 
by putting away a good deal to which you do not call 
attention. You make your home not only orderly but 
pretty, and yourself, also, that his love for you may 
lead him into a love for daintiness. (3) Habits: A 
few set observances may be safely and steadfastly de- 



UNTIDINESS. SI 

manded, but these should be very few : Such as that 
he should not come to breakfast without brushing his 
teeth and combing his hair, or sit down to any meal 
with unwashed hands. Make them so- few that you 
can be practically certain that they are attended to, 
for the whole value of the discipline is not in the su- 
perior condition of his teeth, but in the habit of mind 
that is being formed. 

IMPUDENCE. 

Impudence is largely due to, (i) lack of perception; 
(2) to bad example and to suggestion; and (3) to a 
double standard of morality. 

(i.) In the first place, too much must not be ex- ^ack of 
pected of the young savages in the nursery. Remem- p«'^°«p*>°'^ 
ber that the children there are in a state very much 
more nearly resembling that of a savage or half- 
civilized nation than resembling your own, and that, 
therefore, while they will undoubtedly take kindly to 
showy ceremonial, they are not ripe yet for most 
of the delicate observances. At best, you can only 
hope to get the crude material of good manners from 
them. You can hope that they will be in the main 
kind in intention, and as courteous under provoca- 
tion as is consistent with their stage of development. 
If you secure this, you need not trouble yourself un- 
duly over occasional lapses into perfectly innocent and 
wholesome barbarism. 



52 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

Good manners are in the main dependent upon 
quick sympatliies, because sympathies develop the per- 
ceptions. A child is much less likely to hurt the feel- 
ings or shock the sensibilities of a person whom he 
loves tenderly than of one for whom he cares very 
little. Ihis is the chief reason why all children are 
so much more likely to be offensive in speech and ac- 
tion before strangers than when alone in the bosom of 
their families. They are so far from caring what a 
stranger thinks or feels that they cannot even fore- 
cast his displeasure, nor imagine its reaction upon 
mother or father. The more, then, that the child's 
sympathies are broadened, the more he is encouraged 
to take an interest in all people, even strangers, the 
better mannered will he become. 

(j.) Ikul example is more common than is usual- 
EiampiB ly supposcd. Very few parents are consistently courte- 
ous toward their children. They permit themselves a 
sharp tone of voice, and rough and abrupt habits of 
speech, that would scarcely be tolerated by any adult. 
Even an otherwise gentle and amiable woman is often 
disagreeable in her manner toward her children, com- 
manding them to do things in a way well calculated 
to excite opposition, and rebuking wrong-doing in 
unmeasured terms. She usually reserves her soft and 
gentle speeches for her own friends and for her hus- 
band's, yet discourtesy cannot begin to harm them as 
it harms her children. 



Bad 



IMPUDENCE. 53 

It is true that the children are often under foot 
when she is busiest, when, indeed, she is so distracted 
as to not be able to think about manners, but if she 
would acknowledi^e to herself that she ought to be 
polite, and that when she fails to be, it is because she 
has yielded to temptation; and if, moreover, she would 
make this acknowledgment openly to her children and 
beg their pardon for her sharp words, as she ex- 
pects them to beg hers, the spirit of courtesy, at any 
rate, would prevail in her house, and would influence 
her children. Children are lovingly ready to forgive 
an acknowledged fault, but keen-eyed beyond belief in 
detecting a hidden one. 

(3.) The most fertile cause of impudence is as- 
sumption of a double standard of morality, one for standard 
the child and another for the adult. Impudence is, at 
bottom, the child's perception of this injustice, and 
his rebellion against it. When to this double standard, 
— a standard that measures up gossip, for instance, 
as right for the adult, and listening to gossip as wrong 
for the child — when to this is added the assumption 
of infallibility, it is no wonder that the child fairly 
rages. 

For, if we come to analyze them, what are the 
speeches which we find so objectionable? "Do it 
yourself, if you are so smart." "Maybe I am rude, 
but I'm not any ruder than you are." "I think you 
are just as mean as mean can be; I wouldn't be so 
mean !" Is this last speech any worse in reality than 



Double 



Example 



54 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

"You are a very naughty little girl, and I am ashamed 
of you," and all sorts of other expressions of candid 
adverse opinion? Besides these forms of impudence, 
there is the peculiarly irritating: "Well, you do it 
yourself ; I guess I can if you can." 

In all these cases the child is partly in the right. 
He is stating the fact as he sees it, and violently as- 
serting that you are not privileged to demand more 
of him than of yourself. The evil comes in through 
the fact that he is doing it in an ugly spirit. He is 
not only desirous of stating the truth, but of putting 
you in the wrong and himself in the right, and if this 
hurts you, so much the better. All this is because he 
is angry, and therefore, in impudence, the true evil 
to be overcome is the evil of anger. 

Show him, then, that you are open to correction. 
Admit the justice of the rebuke as far as you can, 
and set him an example of careful courtesy and for- 
bearance at the very moment when these traits are 
most conspicuously lacking in him. If some special 
point is involved, some question of privilege, quietly, 
but very firmly, defer the consideration of it until 
he is master of himself and can discuss the situation 
with an open mind and in a courteous manner. 

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 

In all these examples, which are merely suggestive, 
it is impossible to lay down any absolute moral re- 
cipe, because circumstances so truly alter cases — in 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 



all these no mention is made of corporal punishment. 
This is because corporal punishment is never neces- 
sary, never right, but is always harmful. 

There are three principal reasons why it should not 
be resorted to: First, because it is indiscriminate. To 
inflict bodily pain as a consequence of widely various 
faults, leads to moral confusion. The child who is 
spanked for lying, spanked for disobedience, and 
spanked again for tearing his clothes, is likely enough 
to consider these three things as much the same, as, 
at any rate, of equal importance, because they all lead 
to the saiiie result. This is to lay the foundation for 
a permanent moral confusion, and a man who cannot 
see the nature of a wrong deed, and its relative im- 
portance, is incapable of guiding himself or others. 
Corporal punishment teaches a child nothing of the 
reason why what he does is wrong. Wrong must 
seem to him to be dependent upon the will of another,* 
and its disagreeable consequences to be escapable if 
only he can evade the will of that other. 

Second : Corporal punishment is wrong because it 
inculcates fear of pain as the motive for conduct, 
instead of love of righteousness. It tends directly to 
cultivate cowardice, deceitfulness, and anger — three 
faults w^orse than almost any fault against which it 
can be employed. True, some persons grow up both 
gentle and straightforward in spite of the fact that 
they have been whipped in their youth, but it is in 
spite of, and not because of it. In their homes other 



Moral 
Confusion 



Fear 

versus 

LoTe 



Blunted 



56 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

good qualities must have counteracted the pernicious 
effect of this mistaken procedure. 
Sensibilities Third : Corporal punishment may, indeed, achieve 

immediate results such as seem at the moment to be 
eminently desirable. The child, if he be young 
enough, weak enough, and helpless enough, may be 
made to do almost anything by fear of the rod ; and 
some of the things he may thus be made to do may 
be exactly the things that he ought to do; and this 
certainty of result is exactly what prompts many 
otherwise just and thoughtful persons to the use of 
corporal punishment. But these good results are ob- 
tained at the expense of the future. The effect of 
each spanking is a little less than the effect of the 
preceding one. The child's sensibilities blunt. As 
in the case of a man with the drug habit, it requires 
■ a larger and larger dose to produce the required 
effect. That is, if he is a strong child capable of en- 
during and resisting much. If, on the contrary, he 
is a weak child, whose slow budding will come only 
timidly into existence, one or two whippings followed 
by threats, may suffice to keep him in a permanently 
cowed condition, incapable of initiative, incapable of 
spontaneity. 

The method of discipline here indicated, while it is 
more searching than any corporal punishment, does 
not have any of its disadvantages. It is more search- 
ing, because it never blunts the child's sensibilities, 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 



57 



but rather tends to refine them, and to make them 
more responsive. 

The child thus trained should become more sus- 
ceptible, day by day, to gentle and elevating in- 
fluences. This discipline is educative, explaining to 
the child why what he does is wrong, showing him 
the painful effects as inherent in the deed itself. He 
cannot, therefore, conceive of himself as being ever 
set free from the obligation to do right ; for that ob- 
ligation within his experience does not rest upon his 
mother's will or ability to inflict punishment, but 
upon the very nature of the universe of which he is 
a part. The effects of such discipline are therefore 
permanent. That which happens to the child in the 
nursery, also happens to him in the great world when 
he reaches manhood. His nursery training interprets 
and orders the world for him. He comes, therefore, 
into the world not desiring to experiment with evil, 
but clear-eyed to detect it, and strong-armed to over- 
come it. 

We are now ready to consider our subject in some 
of its larger aspects. 



Educative 
Discipline 



Permanent 
Results 



TEST QUESTIONS 

The following questions constitute the "written reci- 
tation" which the regular members of the A. S. H. E. 
answer in writing and send in for the correction and 
comment of the instructor. They are intended to 
emphasize and fix in the memory the most important 
points in the lesson. 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

PART I. 



Read Carefully, In answering these questions you are 
earnestly requested not to answer according to the text-book 
where opinions are asked for, but to answer according to 
conviction. In all cases credit will be given for thought and 
original observation. Place your name and full address at 
the head of the paper ; use your own words so that your in- 
structor may be sure that you understand the subject. 



1. How does Fiske account for the prolonged help- 

lessness of the human infant? To what prac- 
tical conclusions does this lead ? 

2. Name the four essentials for proper bodilv 

growth. 

3. How does the child's world differ from that of 

the adult? 

4. In training a child morally, how do you know 

which faults are the most important and should 
have, therefore, the chief attention? 

5. In training the will, what end must be held stead- 

ily in view ? 

6. What are the advantages or disadvantages of a 

broken will? 

7. Is obedience important? Obedience to what? 

How do you train for prompt obedience in 
emergencies ? 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

8. What is the object of punishment? Does corporal 

punishment accomplish this object? 

9. What kind of punishment is most effective? 

10. Have any faults a physical origin? If so, name 

some of them and explain. 

11. What are the two great teachers according to 

Tiederman ? 

12. What can you say of the fault of untidiness? 

13. What are the dangers of precocity? 

14. What do you consider were the errors your own 

parents made in training their children ? 

15. Are there any questions which you would like 

to ask in regard to the subjects taken up in 
this lesson? 

Note.— After completing the test, sign your full name. 



■^^^■^'■ 



STUDY OF CHIIJ) LIFE 

PART II 



-^ir 




"CARITAS" 
From a Painting In the Boston Public Library, by Abbot II. Thayer 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

PART II 



CHARACTER BUILDING 

Although wc have taken up the question of pun- 
ishment and the manner of deahng- with various child- 
ish iniquities before the question of character-build- 
ing, it has only been done in order to clear the mind 
of some current misconceptions. In the statements 
of Froebel's simple and positive philosophy of child Froebei'ti 
culture, misconception on the part of the reader nuist ^»^'1os°p'« 
be guarded against, and these misconceptions gener- 
ally arise from a feeling that, beautiful as his opti- 
mistic philosophy may be, there arc some children 
too bad to profit by it — or at least that there are oc- 
casions when it will not work out in practice. In 
the preceding section we have endeavored to show in 
detail how this method applies to a representative 
list of faults and shortcomings, and having thus, we 
hope, proved that the method is applicable to a wide 
range of cases — indeed to all possible cases — we will 
proceed to recount the fundamental principles which 
h'roebel, and before him Pestalozzi,* enunciated ; 
which those who adhere to the new education are to- 
day working out into the detail of school-room i)rac- 
ticc. 

* Pestalozzi, Educator, Philosopher, auc', Reformer. Author of 
••How Gertrude Teacbes Her Uhlldreu." 



6o 



STU/)\- Ol' Cllll.n LIFE. 



Object of 

Moral 

Training, 



The 

Reason 

Why 



As previously stated, the object of the moral train- 
iiii^ of the child is the inculcation of the love of right- 
eousness. Froebel is not concerned with laying^ down 
a mass of observances which the child must follow, 
and which the parents must insist upon. lie thinks 
rather that the child's nature once turned into the 
rig^ht direction and surrounded by rii;ht inllucnces will 
p^row straii^ht without constant yankings and twist- 
ings. 'i'he child wild loves to do right is safe. He 
may make luistakes as to what the right Is, but he 
will learn by these mistakes, and will never go far 
astray. 

However, it is well to save him as far as possible 
from the pain of these mistakes. We need to pre- 
serve in him what has already been implanted there ; 
the love of understanding the reasons for conduct. 
When the child asks "Why?" therefore, he should 
seldom be toUl "liecause mother says so." This is to 
deny a rightful activity of his }Oung mind ; to give 
him a monotonous and iiisuriicient reason. teni])orar}; 
in its nature, instead of a lasting reason which will 
remain with him through life. Dante says all those 
who have lost what he calls "the good of the intel- 
lect" are in the Inferno. And when you refuse to give 
your child satisfactory reasons for the conduct you 
require of him, you refuse to cultivate in him that 
very good of the intellect which is necessary for his 
salvation. 



( ii.iK.K I i:i< in ' 1 1. n INC. 



6i 



As sodii. liowcvrr, as your ooiiimands hcoonu' pusi 
live inslrad of iK'.nalivi', \\\v (liilicully of nu'i'tiii.L; lln' 
situation lK's;ins to disappt-'ar. it is usually u)ucli 
easier to tell llie child why he should do a Ihini; than 
why he should not do its opposite, i'or example, it 
IS much easier to uiake him sei' that he ou,s;hl to \)r 
a helpful memher of the family ihau to make hiiu 
understand why he should slop makini; a loud noise, 
or refrain from wakins; up tin- hahy. There is sonic- 
Ihinj^ in the child which in calm moments recojj^nizes 
that love demands some sacrifice. To this somethinjjj 
you nuisl api)eal and these calm moments, for tlic 
most pari, you must choose for makini;- the appeal. 
'I'he effort is to prevent the appearance of evil hy the 
active presence of s^ood. The child who is husy Iryinj^ 
to he i!,{nH\ has little time to he naughty. 



AilviinlilKO 
of Poaitivo 
Coinmnnda 



iM-ohel's mosi characteristic ultcranci- is perhajjs 
this: "/\ suppressi'd or perverted i^ood (|uality'-a 
^ood U'ndency, onl\ rt-pressi'd. misunderstood, or 
misj^uided — lies orijL^inally al (he hottom of evi'ry 
shortcominj^ in man. Hence the only and infallihle 
remedv for counteraclin.^ any shortcomin.t;- and (>ven 
wickedness is to lind ihe orii^iually i;<)o<l source, the 
oripnally .^ood side of the human heini;- lliat has heen 
repressed, disturbed or misled into the sliortcomint^, 
and then to foster, l)uild up. and ])roperly ,L;uiiK' this 
i^ood side, 'fhus the shortcomiui; will at last dis- 
appear, altlioui;h it may involve a hard slru.ij;j.;le 



Original 
Goodnoaa 



Methods 



62 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

against habit, but not against original depravity in 
man, and this is accomplished so much the more rap- 
idly and surely because man himself tends to abandon 
his shortcomings, for man prefers right to wrong." 
The natural deduction from this is that we should 
say "do" rather than "don't" ; open up the natural 
way for rightful activity instead of uttering loud 
warning cries at the entrance to every wrong path. 
Kindergarten It is for this rcason that the kindergarten tries by 

every means to make right doing delightful. This 
is one of the reasons for its songs, dances, plays, its 
bright colors, birds, and flowers. And in this respect 
it may well be imitated in every home. No one loves 
that which is disagreeable, ugly, and forbidding; yet 
many little children are expected to love right doing 
which is seldom attractively presented to them. 

The results of such treatment are apparent in the 
grown people of to-day. Most persons have an under- 
lying conviction that sinners, or at any rate unconscien- 
tious persons, have a much easier and pleasanter time of 
it than those who try to do right. To the imagination of 
the majority of adults sin is dressed in glittering colors 
and virtue in gray, somber garments. There are few 
who do not take credit for right doing as if they 
had chosen a hard and disagreeable part instead of 
the more alluring ways of' wrong. This is because 
they have been mis-taught in childhood and have 
come to think of wrongdoing as pleasant and virtue 



CHARACTER BUILDING. 



63 



as liard, whereas the real truth is exactly the oppo- 
site. It is wrongdoing that brings unpleasant conse- 
quences and virtue that brings happiness. 

There are those who object that by the kinder- 
garten method right doing is made too easy. The 
children do not have to put forth enough effort, they 
say ; they are not called upon to endure sufficient 
pain ; they do not have the discipline which causes 
them to choose right no matter how painful right 
may be for the moment. Whether this dictum is 
ever true or not, it certainly is not true in early child- 
hood. Tlie love of righteousness needs to be firmly 
rooted in the character before it is strained and pulled 
upon. We do not start seedlings in the rocky soil 
or plant out saplings in time of frost. If tests and 
trials of virtue must come, let them come in later life 
when the love of virtue is so firmly established that it 
may be trusted to find a way to its own satisfaction 
through whatever difficulties may oppose. 

In the very beginning of any effort to live up to 
Froebel's requirements it is evident that children must 
not be measured by the way they appear to the neigh- 
bors. This is to reaffirm the power of that rigid 
tradition which has warped so many young lives. She 
who is trying to fix her child's heart upon true and 
holy things may well disregard her neighbor's com- 
ments on the child's manners or clothes or even upon 
momentary ebullitions of temper. She is working 



Right Doing: 
Made Easy 



Neighbors' 
Opinions 



(>4 



STUDY OF CHILD LIfli. 



Rights 
of Others 



below the surface of things, is setting eternal forces 
to work, and she cannot aftord to interrupt this work 
for the sake of shining the child up with any prema- 
ture outside polish. If she is to have any peace of 
mind or to allow any to the child, if she is to live in any 
way a simple and serene life, she must establish a few 
iundamental principles by which she judges her child's 
conduct and regulates her own, and stand by these 
principles through thick and thin. 

Perhaps the most fundamental principle is that 
enunciated by Fichte. "Each man," he says, "is a 
free being in a world of other free beings." There- 
fore his freedom is limited only by the freedom of the 
other free beings. Tinat is, they must "divide the 
world amongst them." Stated in the form of a com- 
mand he says again, "Restrict your freedom through 
the freedom of all other persons with whom you come 
in contact." This is a rule that even a three-year-old 
child can be made to understand, and it is astonish- 
ing with what readiness he will admit its justice. He 
can do anything he wants to, you explain to him, except 
bother other people. And, of course, the corollary 
follows that every one else can do whatever he pleases 
except to bother the child. 

This clear and simple doctrine can be driven home 
with amazing force, if you strictly respect the child's 
right as you require him to respect yours. You should 
neither allow any encroachments upon your own proper 
privileges, except so far as you explain that this is 



Cll.lR.lCTliR IH'Il.niNi;. 65 

only a loving pcrniissioti on yonr i)arl, antl nol U> be 
assumed as a precedent or to be demanded as a rigbt ; 
nor should you yourself encroach upon his privileges. 

If you do not expect him to interrupt you, you 
must not interrupt him. If you expect him to let you 
alone when you are busy, you nuist let him alone 
when he is busy, that is, when he is hard at work 
playing. If you nuist call him away from his playing, 
give him warning, so that he may have time to put 
his small affaiis in order before obeying your coni- 
inand. The more carefully you do this the more 
willing will be his response on the infret|Uont occa- 
sions when you must demand immediate attention. In 
some such fashion you teach the child to respect the 
rights of others by scrupulously respecting those rights 
to which he is most alive, namely, his own. The next 
step is to require him with you to think out the rights 
of others, and both of you together should shai^e your 
conduct so as to leave these rights uninfringed. 

As soon as the young child's will has fully taken jios- ^^^ pj^^j^,, 
session of his own organism he will inevitably try to |u"^g*'' 
rule yours. The establishment of the law of which I 
have just spoken will go far toward regulating this 
new-born desire. Rut still he nuist be allowed in some 
degree to rule others, because power to rule others 
is likely to be at soiue time during his life of great 
importance to him. To thwart him absolutely in this 
respect, never yielding yourself to his imperious de- 
mands, is alike impossible and undesirable. His will 



66 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

must not be shut up to himself and ,,to the things that 
he can make himself do. In various ways, with due 
consideration for other people's feelings, with courtesy, 
with modesty, he may well be encouraged to do his 
share of ruling. And while, of course, he will not 
begin his ruling in such restrained and thoughtful 
fashion as is implied by these limitations, yet he must 
be suffered to begin ; and the rule for the respect of the 
rights of others should be suffered gradually to work 
out these modifications. 

A safe distinction may be made as follows : Per- 
mit him, since he is so liclpless, to rule and persuade 
others to satisfy his legitimate desires, such as the de- 
sire for food, sleep, afifection, and knowledge ; but when 
he demands indulgencics. reserve your own liberty of 
choice, so as to clearly demonstrate to him that you 
are exercising choice, and in doitig so, are well within 
your own rights. 
Low Voice There is one simple outward observation which 

omman s ,rreatly assists in the inculcation of these funda- 
mental truths — that is the habit of using a low voice in 
speaking, especially when issuing a command or ad- 
ministering a rebuke. A loud, insistent voice prac- 
tically insures rebellion. This is because the low voice 
means that you have command of yourself, the loud 
voice that you have lost it. The child submits to a 
controlled will, but not to one as uncontrolled as his 
own. In both cases he follows your example. If you 
are self-controlled, he tends to become so; if you are 



of Words 



CIlARACTLiR Bl'ILDlNG. 67 

excited and angry, ho also becomes so, or if he is 
already so, hi;> excitement and anger increases. 

While most mothers rely altogether too much upon 
speech as a means of explaining life to the child, yet it 
must be admitted that speech has a great function to 
perform in this regard. Nevertheless it is well to bear 
in mind that it is not true that a child will always do 
what you tell him to do, no matter how plain you may 
tell him, nor how perfectly you may explain your rei- 
sons. 

In the first place, speech means less to children than Limitations 
to grown persons. Each word has a smaller content 
of experience. They cannot get the full force of the 
most clear and eloquent statement. Therefore all 
speech must be reinforced by example, and by as many 
forms of concrete illustrations as can be commanded. 
Each necessary truth should enter the child's mind 
by several channels ; hearmg, eye-sight, motor activity 
should all be called upon. Many truths may be 
dramatized. This, where the mother is clever enough 
to employ it, is the surest method of appeal. Rut in 
any case, speech alone must not be relied upon, nor 
the child considered a hopeless case who docs not 
respond to it. 

Denunciatory speech especially needs wise regulation. 
As Richter says, "What is to be followed as a rule of 
prudence, yea, of justice, toward grown-up people, 
should be much more observed toward children, name- 



68 SrUDY Ol' CHILI) JJPJL 

ly, that one should never judginj^ly declare, for in- 
stance, "Ytni are a liar," or even, "Yon are a had hoy," 
instead of sayni*^-, "You have told an nniruth," or "You 
have done vvron^'." For since the power to coniman'' 
yourself ini])lies at the same time the j)ower of obey- 
ing, man feels a minute after his fault as free as Socra- 
tes, and the brandinj^ mark of his nahirc, not his deed, 
must seem to him blameworthy of punishment. 

"To this must be added that every individual's wrong 
actions, owing" to his inalienable sense of a moral aim 
and hope, seem to him only short, usurped inter- 
regnums of the devil, or comets in the uniform solar 
system. The child, consecpiently, inuler such a moral 
amiihilation, feels the wrong-doing of others more 
than his own ; and this all the more because, in him, 
want of rellection and the general warmth of liis feel- 
ings, represent the injustice of others in a more ugly 
light than his own." 
Example If auy one desires to prove the superior force of 

prooopt example over ])recept, let him try teaching a baby to 
say "Thank you" or "Please," merely by being scrupu- 
lously careful to say these things to the baby on all fit 
occasions. No one has taken the statistics of the num- 
ber of times every small child is exhorted to perfect 
himself in this particular observance ; but it is safe to 
say that in the- United States alone these injunctions 
are spoken something like a million times a day and 
all quite imnccessarily. The child will say "Please" 
and "Thank vou" without being told to do so, if he 



to Children 



CIlARACTIiR in'll.niNC. 69 

merely has his attenticin calk\l to llic fact that tlie 
pcojile around him :ill usi- these phrases. 

The truth is, too many parents forj^et to speak these Poutojiess 
aj;recable words whenever they ask favors of their 
own children ; so the force of their example is marred. 
What you do to the child himself, remember, always 
outweiji^hs anything you do to others before him. This 
is the reason why it is necessary that you shouUl ac- 
knowledge your own shortcnn;ings to the child, if yo.i 
expect him to acknowledge his to you. It is also 
necessary sometimes to point out clearly the kiud and 
considerate things that you are in the habit of doing 
to others, lest the untrained mind of the young child 
way fail to see and so miss the force of your example. 

l^.ut in thus revealing your own good deeds to the 
child, remember the motive, and reveal them only (a) 
when he cannot perceive them of himself, (b) when 
iie needs to perceive them in order that his own con- 
duct may be inlluenced by them, and (c) at the lime 
when he is most likely to appreciate them. This latter 
recjuirement precludes you from announcing your own 
righteousness when he is naughty, and compels you, 
of course, to go directly against your native impulse, 
wliicii is to mention your deeds of sacrifice and kind- 
ness only when you are angry and mean to reproach 
him with them. When you tell him how devoted you 
have been at some moment when you are both thor- 
oughly angry, he is in danger of either denying or 
hating your devotion ; but when yoii refer to it tender- 



7C 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Live with 

Your 

Children 



ly, and, as your heart will then prompt you, modestly, 
at some loving moment, he will give it recognition, 
and be moved to love goodness more devotedly because 
you embody it. 

Another important rule is this : Do not make too 
many rules. Some women are like legislatures in per- 
petual session. The child who is confused and tantal- 
ized by the constant succession of new laws learns 
presently to disregard them, and to regulate his life 
according to certain deductions of his own — sometimes 
surprisingly wise and politic deductions. The way to 
cure yourself of this law-making habit is to stop think- 
ing of every little misdeed as the beginning of a great 
wrong. It is very likely an accident and a combina- 
tion of circumstances such as may not happen again. 
To treat misdemeanors which are not habitual nor char- 
acteristic as evanescent is the best way to make them 
evanescent. They should not be allowed to enter too 
deeply into your consciousness or into that of your 
child. 

In order to be able to discriminate between accidental 
wrong-doing, and that which is the first symptom of 
wrong-thinking, you must be in close touch with your 
children. This brings us to Froebel's great motto, 
"Come, let us live with our children !" This means 
that you are not merely to talk with your child, 
to hear from his lips what he is doing, but to live so 
closelv with him, that in most cases vou know what 



CH. I K. I C TER li Un. niXG. 7 1 

\\Kt is doin^^ without any need of his telHng you. When, 
however, he docs tell you something which happened 
in the school play-around or otherwise out of the ran^e 
of your knowledp^e, he careful not to moralize over 
it. Make yourself as ag-reeable a secret-keeper as his 
best friend of his own age ; let your moralizing be so 
rare that it is effective for that very reason. If the 
occasion needs moral reflection at all — and that seldom 
happens — the wise way is to lead the child to do his 
own reflecting ; to arrive at his own conclusions, and if 
you must lead him, by all means do so as invisibly 
as possible. For the most part it is safe to take the 
confessions lightly, and well to keep your own mind 
young by looking at things from the boy's point of 
view. 

If, however, there is to be perfect confidence be- The subject 
tween you, the one subject which is usually kept out 
of speech between mothers and children must be no 
forbidden subject between them ; you must not refuse 
to answer questions about the mystery of sex. If you 
are not the fit person to teach your child these impor- 
tant facts, who is ? Certainly not the school-mates and 
servants from whom he is likely to learn them if you 
refuse to furnish the information. Usually it is suf- 
ficient simply to answer the child's honest questions 
honestly ; but any mother who finds herself unable to 
cope with this simple matter in this simple spirit, will 
find help in Margaret Morley's "Song of Life," in the 



n STUDY or CHILD LIFE. 

Wood-Allen Publications, and the books of the Rev. 
Sylvanus Stall.* 

In respect to these matters more than in respect to 
others, but also in respect to all matters, children often 
do not know that they are doin^ wrong, even when it 
it very difficult for parents to believe that they do not 
intend wrong-doing. As we have seen from our 
analysis of truthfulness, the child may very often lie 
without a qualm of conscience, and he may still more 
readily break the unwritten rules of courtesy, asking 
abrupt and even cruel questions of strangers, and haul 
the family skeleton out of its closet at critical moments. 
Such things cannot be wholly guarded against, even 
by the exercise of the utmost wisdom, but the habit of 
reasoning things out for himself is the greatest help 
a child can have. 
„. . . The formation of the bent of the child's nature as 

°^s^ a whole is a matter of unconscious education, but as 
he grows in the power to reason, conscious education 
must direct his mental activity. It is not enough for 
him, as it is not enough for any grown person, to do 
the best that he knows ; he must learn to know the best. 
The word righteousness itself means right-wiseness, 
i. e., right knowingness. 

To quote Froebel again, "In order, therefore, to im- 
part true, genuine firmness to the natural will-activity 

"What a Young Girl Ought to Know" and "What a Young 
Woman Ought to Know, ' by Dr. Mary Wood Allfn. 

"What a Young Boy Ought to Know," "What a Young Man 
Ought tn Know," I)y Rev. Sylvanus Stall. 



CHARACTER BUILDING. yi 

of the boy, all the activities of the boy. his entire will 
should proceed from and have reference to the develop- 
ment, cultivation, and representation of the internal. 
Instruction in example and in words, which later on 
become precept and example, furnishes the means for 
this. Neither example alone, nor words will do; not 
example alone, for it is particular and special, and the 
word is needed to give the particular individual exam- 
ple universal applicability ; not words alone, for exam- 
ple is needed to interpret and explain the word, which 
is general, spiritual, and of many meanings. 

"But instruction and example alone and in them- 
selves are not sufficient; they must meet a good pure 
heart and this is the outcome of proper educational 
influences in childhood." 

Lest these directions should seem to demand an al- Moral 
most superhuman degree of control and wisdom on the 
part of the mother, remember that moral precocity is 
as much to be guarded against as mental precocity. 
Remember that you are neither required to be a per- 
fect mother nor to rear a perfect child. As Spencer 
remarks, a perfect child in this imperfect world would 
be sadly out of joint with the times, would indeed be 
a martyr. If your basic principles are right and if 
your child has before him the daily and hourly spectacle 
of a mother who is trying to conform herself to high 
standards, he will grow as fast as it is safe for him 
to grow. Spencer says : "Our higher moral faculties 
like our higher intellectual ones, are comparatively 



Precocity 



74 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

complex. As a consequence they are both compara- 
tively late in their evolution, and with the one as with 
the other, a very early activity produced by stimula- 
tion will be at the expense of the future character. 
Hence the not uncommon fact that those who during 
childhood were instanced as models of juvenile good- 
ness, by and by undergo some disastrous and seemingly 
inexplicable change, and end by being not above but 
below par; while relatively exemplary men are often 
the issue of a childhood not so promising. 

"Be content, therefore, with moderate measures and 
moderate results, constantly bearing in mind the fact 
that the higher morality, like the higher intelligence, 
must be reached by a slow growth ; and you will then 
have more patience with those imperfections of nature 
which your child hourly displays. You will be less 
prone to constant scolding, and threatening, and for- 
bidding, by which many parents induce a chronic irri- 
tation, in a foolish hope that they will thus make their 
children what they should be." 
Huiesin In couclusion, the rules that may be safely followed 

Character 

Building m charactcr-building may be summed up thus : 

(i) Recognize that the object of your training is 
to help the child to love righteousness. Command lit- 
tle and then use positive commands rather than prohi- 
bitions. Use "do" rather than- "don't." 

(2) Make right-doing delightful. 

(3) Establish Fichte's doctrine of right, see page 
64. 



CUARACl'EK BUILDING. 75 

(4) Teach by example rather than precept. There- 
fore respect the child's rights as you wish him to re- 
spect yours. 

(5) Use a low voice, especially in commanding;- or 
rebuking-. 

(6) In chiding, remember Richter's rule and re- 
buke the sin and not the sinner. 

(7) Confess your own misdeeds, by this means and 
others securing the confidence of your children. 

Finally, remember that this is an im])erfect world, 
you are an imperfect mother, and the best results 
you can hope for are likely to be imperfect. But the 
results may be so founded upon eternal principles as 
to tend continually to give place to better and better 
results. 



PLAY 



Aristotle 



Luther 



Although Froebel is best known as the educator who 
first took advantage of play as a means of education, 
he was not, in reality, the first to recoginze the high 
value of this spontaneous activity. He was indeed the 
first to put this recognition into practice and to use the 
force generated during play to help the child to a high- 
er state of knowledge. 

But before him Plato said that the plays of children 
have the mightiest influence on the maintenance or the 
non-maintenance of laws ; that during the first three 
years the child should be made "cheerful" and "kind" 
by having sorrow and fear and pain kept away from 
him and by soothing him with music and rhythmic 
movements. 

Aristotle held that children until they were five years 
old "should be taught nothing, not even necessary la- 
bor, lest it hinder growth, but should be accustomed 
to use so much motion as to avoid an indolent habit 
of body, and this," he added, "can be acquired by 
various means, among others by play, which ought to 
be neither illiberal, nor laborious, nor lazy." 

Luther rebukes those who despise the plays of chil- 
dren and says that Solomon did not prohibit scholars 
from play at the proper time. Fenelon, Locke, Schil- 
ler, and Richter all admit the deep significance of this 
universal instinct of youth. 

Preyer, speaking not as a philosopher or educator, 
but as a scientist, mentions "the new kinds of pleas- 



PL. I V. 77 

arable sensations with some adniixturc of intellectual 
elements," which are gained when the child gradually 
begins to play. Much that is called play he considers 
true experimenting, especially when the child is seen to 
be studying the changes produced by his own activity, 
as when he tears ])aper into small bits, shakes a bunch 
of keys, opens and shuts a box, plays with sand, and 
empties bottles, and throws stones into the water. "The 
zeal with which these seemingly aimless movemenls 
are executed is remarkable. The sense of graliliealion 
must be very great, and is i)rincipally due to the feeling 
of his own power, and of being the cause of the various 
changes." 

All these authorities are quoted here in o'"(ler to Educational 

• • r 1 I'll Value of 

show that the practical recognition of play wliicli ob- puy 
tains among the advanced educators to-day is not a 
piece of sentimentalism. as stern critics sometimes de- 
clare, but the united opinion of some of the wisest 
minds of this and former ages. As Froebel says, "I'lay 
and speech eonstilnte the element in which the child 
lives. At this stage (the fust three years of childhood) 
he imparts to everything the virtues of sight, feeling, 
and speech. He feels the unity between himself and 
the whole external world " And h'roebel conceives it 
to be of the profoundest importance that this sense of 
unity should not be disturbed. He finds that play is 
the most spiritual activity of man at this age, "and at 
the same time typical of human life as a whole — of the 



78 STUDY Of CHILD LIFE. 

inner, hidden, natural life of man and all things ; 
it gives, therefore, joy, freedom, contentment, inner 
and outer rest, peace with the world ; it holds the 
sources of all that is good. The child that plays thor- 
oughly until physical fatigue forbids will surely be a 
thorough, determined man, capable of self-sacrifice for 
the promotion and welfare of himself and others." 

But all play ^loes not deserve this high praise. It 
fits only the play under right conditions. Fortunately 
these are such that every mother can command them. 
There are three essentials: (i) Freedom, (2) Sym- 
pathy, (3) Right materials. 

(i) Freedom is the first essential, and here the 
child of poverty often has the advantage of the 
child of wealth. There are few things in the pover- 
ty-stricken home too good for Inm to play with ; in its 
narrow quarters, he becomes, perforce, a part of all 
domestic activity. He learns the uses of household 
utensils, and his play merges by imperceptible degrees 
into true, healthful work. 

In the home of wealth, however, there is no such 
freedom, no such richness of opportunity. The child 
of wealth has plenty of toys, but few real things to 
play with. lie is shut out of the common activity of 
the family, and shut in to the imitation activity of liis 
nursery. He never gets his small hands on realities, 
but in his elegant clothes is confined to the narrow 
conventional round that is falsely sui)posed to be good 
for him. 



PLAY. 79 

Froebel insists upon the importance of the child's 
dress beintj loose, serviceable, and inconspicuous, so 
that he may play as nuich as possible without con- 
sciousness oi the restrictions of dress. The playinji; 
child should also have, as we have noticed in the first 
section, the freedom of the outside world. This does 
not mean merely that he should go out in his baby- 
buo;^y, or take a ride in the jjark, but that he should 
be able to play out-of-doors, to creep on the {i^round, 
to be a little open-air savage, and play with nature as 
he finds it. 

(2) Sympathy is much more likely to rise spon- 
taneously in the mother's breast for the child's troubles 
than for the child's joys. She will stop to take him 
up and pet him when he is hurt, no matter how busy 
she is, but she too often considers it waste of time 
to enter into his plays with him ; \el he needs sympallu 
in joy as much as in sorrow. ITcr presence, her inter- 
est in what he is doing, doubles his delight in it and 
doubles its value to him. Moreover, it offers her op- 
portunity for that touch and direction now and then, 
which may transform a rambling i)lay, without much 
sequence or meaning, into a consciously usefid per- 
formance, a dramatization, perhaps, of some of the 
child's observations, or an investigation into the na- 
ture of things. 

(3) Riglil Malcrial. \\vvu given rrccdnni ;iii<l 
symi)alhy, the child tiee(ls soiiK-thiug nmre in or<lcr to 



8o STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

play well : he needs the ri<;ht materials. The best ma- 
terials are thdse that are eommon to him ami io the 
rest of the world, far better than expensive toys that 
mark him apart from the worlil of less fortunate chil- 
dren. Such toys are not in any way desirable, and 
they may even be harmful. What he needs are 
various simple arrangements of the four elements — 
earth, air, fire, and water. 
Mud-pies (i) Earth. The child has a noted adfinity Coi' it, 

and he is specially happy when he has jileuty of it on 
hands, face, and clothes. The love of mud-pies is uni- 
versal ; children of all nationalities and of all dei;rees 
of civilization delight in it. No activity could be mora 
wholesome. 
Sand Next to uuul couics saiid. It is cleaner in appear- 

ance and can be brought into the house. A tray of 
moistened sand, set upon a low table, should be in 
every mu'sery, and the sand pile in every yard. 
Clay Clay is more difficult to manage indoors, because it 

gets dry and sifts all about the house, but if a corner 
of the cellar, where there is a good light, can be givi'ii 
up for a strong table ami a jar of clay mixed with some 
water, it will be found a groat resource for rainy 
days. If modeling aprons of strong material, but- 
toned with one button at the neck, be hung near the jar 
of clay, the children may work in this material with- 
out spoiling their clothes. Clay-modeling is an excel- 
lent form of manual training, develo])ing without for- 
cing the delicate muscles of the fingers and wrists, and 



PLAY. 



8i 



gwing wide opportunity for the exercise of the imagin- 
ation. 

Earth may be played with in still another way. Chil- 
dren should dig in it ; for all pass through the digging- 
stage and this should be given free swing. It develops 
their muscles and keeps them busy at helpful and con- 



Dig: g-ing 




I'A'i ri;i;.N ok a modki.inc atkon. 



structivc work. They may dig a well, make a cave, or 
a pond, or burrow underground and make tunnels like 
a mole. Give them spades and a piece of ground they 
can do with as they like, dress them in overalls, and 
it will be long before you arc asked to think of another 
amusement for them. 

In still another way the earth may be utilized, for 
children may make gardens of it. Indeed, there are 
those who say that no child's education is complete 



Gardens 



82 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

until he has had a garden of his own and grown in it 
all sorts of seeds from pansies to potatoes. But a gar- 
den is too much for a }Oung child to care for all alone. 
He needs the help, advice, and companionship of some 
older person. You must be careful, however, to give 
help only when it is really desired ; and careful also 
not to let him feel that the garden is a task to which 
he is driven daily, but a joy that draws him. 
Kites (2) The Air. The next important plaything is the 

Soap-bubbles air. The kite and the balloon are only two instru- 
ments to help the child play with it. Little windmills 
made of colored paper and stuck by means of a pin at 
the end of a whittled* stick, make satisfactory toys. 
One of their great advantages is that even a very young 
child can make them for himself. Blowing soap-bub- 
bles is another means of playing with air. By giving 
the children woolen mittens the bubbles may be caught 
and tossed about as well as blown. 

(3) JJ''afcr. Perhaps the very first thing he learns 
to play with is water. Almost before he knows the 
use of his hands and legs he plays with water in his 
bath, and sucks his sponge with joy, thus feeling the 
water with his chief organs of touch, his mouth and 
tongue. A few months later he will be glad to pour 
water out of a tin cup. Even when he is two or three 
years old, he may be amused by the hour, by dressing 
him in a woolen gown, with his sleeves rolled high, 
and setting him down before a big bowl or his own 
bath-tub half full of warm water. To this may be 



FLAK 83 

added a spong-e, a tin cup, a few bits of wood, and sonic 
paper. They should not be given all at once, but one 
at a time, the child allowed to exhaust the possibilities 
of each before another is added. Still later he may 
be given the bits of soap left after a cake of soap is 
used up. Give him also a few empty bottles or bowls 
and let him put them away with a solid mass of soap- 
suds in them and see what will happen. When he is 
older — past the period of putting everything in his 
mouth — he may be given a few bits of bright ribbons, 
petals of artificial ilowers, or any bright colored bits of 
cloth which can color the water. 

Children love to sprinkle the grass with the hose or 
to water the flowers with the sprinkling can. They 
enjoy also the metal fishes, ducks, and boats which may 
be drawn about in the water by means of a magnet. 
Presently they reach the stage when they must have 
toy-boats, and next they long to go into real boats and 
go rowing and sailing. They want to fish, wade, swim, 
and skate. 

Some of these pastimes are dangerous, but they are 
sure to be indulged in at some time or other, with or Pastimes 
without permission. There never grew a child to 
sturdy manhood who was successfully kept away from 
water. The wise mother, then, will not forbid this 
play, but will do her best to regulate it, to make it 
safe. She will think out plans for permitting children 
to go swimming in a safe ]ilace with some older per- 
son. She will let them go wading, and at holiday time 



Dangerous 



S4 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

will take them boat-riding. If she permits as much 
activity in these respects as possible, her refusal when 
it does come will be respected ; and the child will not, 
unless perhaps in the first bitterness of disappointment, 
think her unfriendly and fussy. Above all, he is not 
likely to try to deceive her, to run ofi and take a 
swim on the sly, and thus fall into true danger. 

(4) Fire is another ic-vitable plaything. Miss 
Shinn reports that the first act of her little niece that 
showed the dawn of voluntary control of the muscles 
was the clinging of her eyes to the flame of a candle, 
at the end of the second week. The sense of light and 
the pleasure derived from it is one of the chief in- 
centives to a baby's intellectual development. But 
since fire is dangerous the child must be taught this 
fact as quickly and painlessly as possible. He will 
Precaution probably have to be burned once before he really under- 
stands it, but by watching you can make this pain very 
small and slight, barely sufficient to give the child a 
wholesome fear of playing with unguarded fire. For 
instance, show that the lamp globe is hot. It is not hot 
enough to injure him, but quite hot enough to be un- 
pleasant to his sensitive nerves. Put your own hand 
on the lamp and draw it away with a sharp cry, saying 
warningly, "Hot, hot !" Do not put his hand on the 
lamp, but let him put it there himself and then be very 
sympathetic over the result. ' Usually one such lesson 
is sufficient. Only do not permit yourself to call every- 
thing hot which you do not want him to touch. He 



with Fire 



PLAY. 85 

will soon discover that you are untruthful and will 
never again trust you so fully. 

Under proper regulations, however, fire may be 
played with safely. Bonfires with some older person 
in attendance are safe enough and prevent unlawful 
bonfires in dangerous places. The rule should be that 
none of the children may play with fire except with 
permission ; and then that permission should be grant- 
ed as often as possible that the children may be en- 
couraged to ask for it. A stick smouldering at one 
end and waved about in circles and ellipses is not 
dangerous when elders are by, but it is dangerous 
if played w'ith on the sly. Playing with fire on the sly 
is the most dangerous thing a child can do, and the 
only way to prevent it is to permit him to play with 
fire in the open. A beautiful game can be made from 
a number of Christmas tree candles of various colors 
and a bowl of water. The candles are Hghted and the 
wax dropped into the water, making little colored cir- 
cles which float about. These can be linked together 
in such a fashion as to form patterns which may be 
lifted out on sheets of paper. 

Tlie magic lantern is an innocent and comparatively 
cheap means of playing with light. If it is well taken Lantern 
care of and fresh slides added from time to time it can 
be made a source of pleasure for years. Jack-o'-lan- 
terns are great fun, and when pumpkins are not avail- 
able, oranges may be used instead. 

Besides these elemental playthings the cliild gets 



Magic 



Rhythmic 
Movements 



86 s'ruj)y or cuiij) life. 

much valuable pleasure out of the rhythmic use of his 
own muscles. All such plays Plato thought should be 
regulated by music, and with this I-'roebel agreed, but 
in the household this is often impossible. The chil- 
dren must indulge in many movements when there is 
no one about who has leisure to make music for them. 
Still, when they come to the quarrelsome age, a few 
minutes' rhythmic play to the sound of music will be 
found to harmonize the whole group wonderfully. 
For this purpose the ordinary hippity-hop, fast or slow 
according to the music, is sufficient. It is as if the 
regulaticMi of the body to the laws of harmony re- 
acted upon minds and nerves. Such an exercise is 
particularly valuable just before bed-time. The chil- 
dren go to sleep then with their minds under the influ- 
ence of harmony and wake in the morning inclined to 
be peaceful and happy. 

Bongs A. book of Kindergarten songs, such as Mrs. Gay- 

nor's ".Songs of the Child World" and Eleanor 
Smith's "Songs for the Children," ought to be in every 
household, and the mother ought to familiarize herself 
with a dozen or so of these perfectly simple melodies. 
Of course the children must learn them with her. 
When once this has been done she has a valuable 
means of amusing them and bringing them within her 
control at any time. She may hum one of the songs 
or play it. The children must guess what it is and 
then act out their guess in pantomime, so that she can 
see what they mean. Perhaps it is a windmill song; 



PLAY. 87 

their arms fly around and around in time to the music, 
now fast, now slow. Perhaps it is a Spring song ; the 
children are birds building their nests. Other songs 
turn them into shoemakers, galloping horses, or sol- 
diers. 

Dramatic plays, whether simple, like this, or elabo- Dramatic 
rate, are, as Goethe shows in Wilhelm Meister, of the ^^^^^ 
greatest possible educational advantage. In them the 
child expresses his ideas of the world about him and 
becomes master of his own ideas. He acts out whatever 
he has heard or seen. He acts out also whatever he is 
puzzling about, and by making the terms of his prob- 
lem clear to his consciousness usually solves it. 

As for dancing, Richter exclaims : "I know not Dancing 
whether I should most deprecate children's balls or 
most praise children's dances. For the harmony con- 
nected with it (dancing) imparts to the affections and 
the mind that material order which reveals the highest, 
and regulates the beat of the pulse, the step, and even 
the thought. Music is the meter of this poetic move- 
ment, and is an invisible dance, as dancing is a silent 
music. Finally, this also ranks among the advantages 
of his eye and heel pleasure ; that children with chil- 
dren, by no harder canon than the musical, light as 
sound, may be joined in a rosebud feast without thorns 
or strife." The dances m^y be of the simplest kind, 
such as "Ring Around a Rosy." "Here We Go, To and 
Fro," "Old Dan Tucker" and the "Virginia Reel." 
The old-fashioned singing plays, such as "London 



88 . STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

Bridge," "Where Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley 
Grow," and "Pop Goes the Weasel" have their place 
and value. Several collections of them have been 
made and published, but usually quite enough material 
may be found for these plays in the memories of the 
people of any neighborhood. 
Toys All tliese plays, it will be noticed, call for very 
simple and inexpensive apparatus, in most cases for 
no apparatus at all. Nevertheless there is a place for 
toys. All children ought to have a few, both because 
of the innocent pleasure they afford and because they 
need to have certain possessions which are inalienably 
their own. A simple and inexpensive list of suitable 
toys adapted to various ages is gi\ en at the end of this 
section. Most of them are exactly the toys that parents 
usually buy. But it will be noticed that none of them 
are very elaborate or expensive, and that the patrol 
wagon is not among them. This is because the patrol 
wagon directly leads to plays that are not only un- 
educational but positively harmful in their tendencies. 
The children of a whole neighborhood were once led 
into the habit of committing various imitation crimes 
for the sake of being arrested and carried off in a min- 
iature patrol wagon. If any such expensive and elabo- 
rate toys are bought, it may well be the plain express 
wagon or the hook and ladder and fire engine. The 
first of these leads to plays of industry, the second 
to those of heroism. 



LIST OF TOYS SUITABLE FOR VARIOUS AGES. 

Ball, rubber ring, soft animals and rag dolls Before 1 year 

Blocks and Bells 1 year 

Small chair and table IV2 years 

Noah's lArk 2 years 

Picture books 2 years 

Materials and instruments 2 to 3 years 

Carts, stick-horses, and reins 2% to 3 years 

Boats, ships, engines, tin or wooden animals, dolls, 

dishes, broom, spade, sand-pile, bucket, etc 3 years 

Hoop, games and story-books g years 



OCCUPATIONS 



Home 
Xindergarten 



Kindergarten 
Methods 



Tliere are a number of books designed to teach 
mothers how to carry the Khidergarten occupations 
over into the home ; but while such books may be help- 
ful in a few cases, in most cases better occupations pre- 
sent themselves in the course of the day's work. The 
Kindergarten occupations themselves follow increasing- 
ly the order of domestic routine. For example, many 
children in the Kindergarten make mittens out of eider- 
down flannel in the Fall, when their own mothers are 
knitting their mittens, and make little hoods either for 
themselves or for their dolls. At other periods they 
put up little glasses of preserves or jelly, and study the 
industry of the bees and the way they put up their 
tiny jars of jelly. Tlieir attention is called also to the 
preparations that the squirrels and other animals make 
for winter, and to that of the trees and flowers. In 
other words, the occupations in the Kindergarten are 
designed to bring the children into conscious sympathy 
with the life of nature and of the home. 

That mother who keeps this purpose in mind and 
applies it to the occupations that come up naturally in 
the course of a day's work, will thereby bring the 
Kindergarten spirit into her own home much more 
truly than if she invests in a number of perforated sew- 
ing cards and colored strips of paper for weaving. Not 
that there is any harm in these bits of apparatus, prO' 



Helping 



OCCUPATIONS. 91 

vided that the sewing cards are large and so perforated 
as not to task the eyes and young fingers of the sewer. 
But unless for some special purpose, such as the mak- 
ing of a Christmas or birthday gift, these devices are 
unnecessary and better left to the school, which has less 
richness of material at hand than has the home. 

In allowing the children to enter as workers into 
the full life of the home several good things are accom- Mother 
plished. ( I ) The eager interest of the developing 
mind is utilized to brighten those duties which are 
likely to remain permanent duties. Nor does this ob- 
servation apply only to girls. Domestic obligations 
are suj)pose(l to rest chiefly upon them, but the truth 
is that boys need to feel these obligations as keenly as 
the girls, if they are to grow into considerate and 
helpful husbands and fathers. The usual division of 
labor into forms falsely called masculine and feminine 
is, therefore, much to be deplored. Moreover, at an 
early age children are seldom sex-conscious, and any 
precocity in this direction is especially evil in its re- 
sults ; yet many mothers from the beginning make 
such a division between what they require of their boys 
and of their girls as to force this consciousness upon 
them. All kinds of work, then, should be allowed in 
the beginning, however it may differentiate later on, 
and little boys as well as little girls should be taught 
to take an interest in sewing, dish-washing, sweeping, 
dusting, and cooking — in all the forms of domestic 
activity. 



92 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

This is so far recognized among educators that the 
most progressive primary schools now teach cooking 
to mixed classes of boys and girls, and also sewing. 
These activities are recognized as highly educational, 
being, as they are, interwoven with the history of the 
race and with its daily needs. When they are studied 
in their full sum of relationship, they increase the 
child's knowledge of both the past and the living world. 

Teaching (2) Bcsides the deepening of the child's interest in 

that work which in some form or other he will have 
with him always, is the quickening of the mother's own 
interest in what may have come to seem to her mere 
daily drudgery. Any woman who undertakes to per- 
form so simple an operation as dish-washing with the 
help of a bright happy child, asking sixteen questions 
to the minute, will find that common-place operation 
full of possibilities ; and if she will answer all the 
questions she will probably find her knowledge strained 
to the breaking pomt, and will discover there is more 
to be known about dish-washing than she ever dreamed 
of before ; while in cooking, if she will make an efifort 
to look up the science, history, and ethics involved in 
the cooking and serving of a very simple meal, she 
will not be likely to regard the task as one beneath 
her, but rather as one beyond her. No one can so 
lead her away from false conventions and narrow 
prejudices as a little child whom she permits to help 
her and teach her. 



OCCUPATIONS. 



93 



(3) The child's spontaneous joy in being active and 
in doing any service is being utilized, as it should be, 
in the performance of his daily duties. We have al- 
ready referred to the fact that all children in the be- 
ginning love to work, and that there must be some- 
thing the matter with our education since this love is 
so early lost and so seldom reacquired. If when 
young children wish to help mother they are almost 
invariably permitted to do so, and their efforts greeted 
lovingly, this delight in helpfulness will remain a 
blessing to them throughout life. 

But in order to get these benefits from the domestic 
activities two or three simple rules must be observed, 
(i) Do not go silently about your work, expecting 
your child to be interested and to understand without 
being talked to. Play with him while you work with 
him and see the realization of youthfulness that comes 
to yourself while you do it. Many tasks fit for child- 
ish hands are in their nature too monotonous for child- 
ish minds. Here your imagination must come into 
play to rouse and excite his activity. For instance, 
you are both shelling peas. When he begins to be 
tired you suggest to him, "Here is a cage full of birds, 
let us open the door for them ;" or you may tell a story 
while you work, but it should be a story about that very 
activity, or the child will form the habit of dreaming 
and dawdling over his work. Such stories may be 
perfectly simple and even rather pointless and yet do 
good work; the whole object is to keep the child's fly- 



The Low 
of Work 



To Make 
"Helping" 
of Benefit 



94 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

away imagination turned upon the work at hand, thus 
lending wings to his thought, and lightness to his 
fingers. Moreover, the mother who talks with her child 
while working is training in him the habit of bright 
unconscious conversation, thus giving him a most use- 
ful accomplishment. Making a game or a play out of 
the work is, of course, conducive to the same good re- 
sults. When the story or the talk drags, the game 
with its greater dramatic power may be substituted. 

Fatigue (2) Qiildrcn should neither be allowed to work to 

the point of fatigue nor to stop when they please. Fa- 
tigue, as our latest investigators in physiological psy- 
chology have conclusively proved, is productive of an 
actual poison in the blood and as such is peculiarly 
harmful to young children. But while work — or for that 
matter play either — must never be pushed past the point 
of healthful fatigue, it may well be pushed past the 
point of spontaneous interest and desire : the child may 
be happily persuaded by various hidden means to do a 
little more than he is quite ready to do. By this de- 
vice, which is one of the recognized devices of the 
Kindergarten, mothers increase by imperceptible de- 
grees that power of attention which makes will power. 

Willing (3) Set the example of willing industry. Neither 

let the child conceive of you as an impersonal necessary 
part of the household machinery, nor as an unwilling 
martyr to household necessities. Most mothers err in 
one or the other of these two directions, and many of 
them err in both : they either, (a) perform the ii?-' 



Industry 



OCCUPATIONS. 95 

niimcrahle services of the household so quietly and 
steadily that the child does not perceive the effort that 
the performance costs and, therefore, as far as his 
consciousness is concerned, is deprived of the force of 
his mother's example, or (b) they groan aloud over 
their burdens and make their daily martyrdom vocal. 
Either way is wrong, for it is a mistake not to let a 
child see that your steady performance of tasks, which 
cannot be always delightful, is a result of self-dis- 
cipline ; and it is equally a mistake to let him think 
that this discipline is one against which you rebel. 
For in reality you are so far from being unwilling to 
bind yourself in his service that if he needed it you 
would promptly double and quadruple your exertions. 
It is exactly what you do when he is sick or in danger ; 
and if he dies the sorest ache of your heart is the ache 
of the love that can no longer be of service to the be- 
loved. 

(4) Remember that monotony is the curse of labor Monotony 
for both child and adult, but that monotony cannot exist 
zvhcre new intellectual insights are constantly being 
given. Therefore, while the daily round of labor, 
shaped by the daily recurring demands for food, 
warmth, cleanliness, and sleep, goes on without much 
change, seize every opportunity to deepen the child's 
perception of the relation of this routine to the order 
of the larger worJd. For instance, if a new house is 
being built near by, visit it with the children, comparing 
it with your own house, figure out whether it is going 



96 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Beautiful 
Work 



The Uighi 
Spirit 



to be easier to keep clean and to warm than your house 
is and why. It you need to call in the carpenter, the 
plumber, the paper-hanger, or the stoveman, try to 
have him come when the children are at home, and let 
them satisfy their intense curiosity as to his work. 
This knowledge will sooner or later be of practical 
value, and it is immediately of spiritual value. 

(5) Beautify the work as much as possible by let- 
ting the artistic sense have full play. This rule is so 
important that the attempt to establish it in the larger 
world outside of the home has given rise to the move- 
ment known as the arts and crafts movement, which 
has its rise in the perception that no great art can come 
into existence among us until the common things of 
daily living — the furniture, the books, the carpets, the 
chinaware — are made to express that creative joy in 
the maker which distinguishes an artistic product from 
an inartistic one. This creative joy, in howsoever 
small degree, may be present in most c f the things that 
the child does. If he sets the table, he may set it 
beautifully, taking real pleasure in the coloring of the 
china and the shine of the silver and glass. He ought 
not to be permitted to set it untidily upon a soiled ta- 
blecloth. 

(6) This is a negative rule, but perhaps the most 
important of all : do not nag. The child who 
is driven to his work and kept at it by means of a 
constant pressure of a stronger will upon his own, is 
deriving little, if any, benefit from it ; and as you are 



OCCUPATIONS. 97 

not teaching him to work for the sake of his present 
usefulness, which is small at the best, but for the sake 
of his future development, you are more desirous that 
he should perform a single task in a day in the right 
spirit, than that he should run a dozen errands in the 
wrong spirit. 

(7) Besides a regular time each day for the per- 
formance of his set share in the household work, give 
him warning before the arrival of that hour. Children 
have very incomplete notions of time ; they become 
much absorbed in their own play ; and therefore no 
child under nine or ten years of age should be expected 
to do a given thing at a given time without warning 
that the time is at hand. 

Besides these occupations which are truly part of the 
business of life come any number of other occupa- 
tions — a sort of a cross between real play and steady 
work, what teachers call "busy work" — ;and here the 
suggestions of the Kindergarten may be of practical 
value to the mother. For instance, weaving, already 
referred to, may keep an active child interested and 
quiet for considerable periods of time. Besides the 
regular weaving mats of paper, to be had from any 
Kindergarten supply store, wide grasses and rushes 
may be braided into mats, raffia and rattan may be 
woven into baskets, and strips of cloth woven into iron- 
holders. A visit to any neighboring Kindergarten will 
acquaint the mother with a number of useful, simple 
objects that can be woven by a child. Whatever he 



"Busy Work" 



98 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

weaves or whatever he makes should be appHed to some 
useful purpose, not merely thrown away ; and while it 
is true that a conscientious desire to live up to this rule 
often results in a considerable clutter of flimsy and 
rather undesirable objects about the house, still, ways 
may be devised for slowly retiring the oldest of them 
from view, and disposing of others among patient 
relatives. 
Sewing Sewing is another occupation much used in the Kin- 
dergarten as well as in the home. Beginning with the 
simple stringing of large wooden beads upon shoe- 
strings, it passes on to sewing on buttons, and sewing 
doll clothes to the making of real clothing. This last 
in its simplest form can be begun sooner than most 
parents suppose, especially if the child is taught the 
use of the sewing machine. There is really no reason 
why a child, say six years old, should not learn to sew 
upon the machine. His interest in machinery is keen 
at this period, and two or three lessons are usually 
sufficient to teach him enough about the mechanism to 
keep him from injuring it. Once he has learned to 
sew upon the machine, he may be given sheets and 
towels to hem, and even sew up the seams of larger 
and more complex articles. He will soon be able to 
make aprons for himself and his sisters and mother. 
Toy sewing machines are now sold which are really 
useful playthings, and on which the child can manu- 
facture a number of small articles. Those run by a 
treadle are preferable to those run by a hand crank, 



OCCUPATIONS. 



99 



because they leave the child's hands free to guide the 
work. 

Drawing, painting, cutting and pasting are excellent 
occupations for children. A large black-board is a 
useful addition to the nursery furnishings, but the 
children should be required to wash it off with a damp 
cloth, instead of using the eraser furnished for the 
purpose, as the chalk dust gets into the room and fills 
the children's lungs. Plenty of soft pencils and cray- 
ons, also large sheets of inexpensive drawing paper, 
should be at hand upon a low table so that they can 
draw the large free outlines which best develop their 
skill, whenever the impulse moves them. If they have 
also blunt scissors for cutting all sorts of colored papers 
and a bottle of inocuous library paste, they will be able 
to amuse themselves at almost any time. 

Some water colors are now made which are harmless 
for children so young that they are likely to put the 
paints in their mouths. Paints are on the whole less 
objectionable than colored chalks, because the crayons 
drop upon the floor and get trodden in\o the carpet. 
If children are properly clothed as they should be in 
simple washable garments, there is practically no diffi- 
culty connected with the free use of paints, and their 
educational value is, of course, very high. 



Drawing 

Cutting 
Pasting 



Painting 



TEST QUESTIONS 

The following questions constitute the "written reci- 
tation" which the regular members of the A. S. H. E. 
answer in writing and send in for the correction and 
comment of the instructor. They are intended to 
emphasize and fix in the memory the most important 
points in the lesson. 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

PART II 



Read Carefully. In answering these questions you are 
earnestly requested not io answer according' to the text-book 
where opinions are asked for, but to answ^r according to 
conviction. In all cases credit will be given for thought and 
original observation. Place your name and full address at 
the head of the paper; use your own words so that your 
instructor may be sure that you understand the subject. 



1. State Fichte's doctrine of rights and show how it 

applies to child training. If possible, give an ex- 
ample from your own experience. 

2. What is the aim of moral training ? 

3. What two sayings of Froebel most characteristic- 

ally sum up his philosophy? 

4. What is the value of play in education ? 

5. What are the natural playthings? Tell what, in 

your childhood, you got out of these things, or if 
you were kept away from them, what the pro- 
hibition meant to you. 

6. What do you think about children's dancing? 

And acting? 

7. Do you agree with those who think that the Kin- 

dergarten makes right doing too easy ? State the 
reasons for your opinion. 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

8. What can you say of commands, reproofs, and 

rules ? 

9. Should you let the children help you about the 

house, even when they are so little as to be 
troublesome? Why? If they are unwilling to 
help, how do you induce them to help ? 

10. What would you suggest as regular duties for 

children of 4 to 5 years ? Of 7 to 8 years ? 

11. Which do you consider the more important, the 

housework or the child ? 

12. Wherein may the mother learn from the child? 

13. What is the difference between amusing children 

and i)laying with them ? Which is the proper 
method ? 

14. Mention some good rules in character building. 

15. From your own experience as a child what can 
you say of teaching the mysteries of sex? 

16. Are there any questions you would like to ask, 

or subjects which you wish to discuss in connec- 
tion with this lesson ? 

Note. — After completing the test sign your full name. 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

PART III 




MADONNA AND CHILD 
By Murillo, Spanish painter of the seventeenth century 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

PART III 



ART AND LITERATURE IN CHILD LIFE 

The influence of art upon the Hfe of a young child 
is difficult of measurement. It may freely be said, 
however, that there is little or no danger in exaggerat- 
ing its influence, and considerable danger in underrat- 
ing it. It is difficult of measurement because the in- 
fluence is largely an unconscious one. Indeed, it may 
be questioned whether that form of art which gives 
him the most conscious and outspoken pleasure is the 
form that in reality is the most beneficial ; for, unques- 
tionably, he will get great satisfaction from circus 
posters, and the poorly printed, abominably illustrated 
cheap picture-books afford him undeniable joy. He is 
far less likely to be expressive of his pleasure in a sun- 
shiny nursery, whose walls, rugs, white beds, and sun- 
shiny windows are all well designed and well adapted 
to his needs. Nevertheless, in the end the influence of 
this room is likely to be the greater influence and to 
permanently shape his ideas of the beautiful; while 
he is entirely certain, if allowed to develop artistically 
at all, to grow past the circus poster period. 

This fact — the fact that the highest influence of art 
is a secret influence, exercised not only by those decora- 
tions and pictures which flaunt themselves for the pur- 
pose, but also by those quiet, necessary, every-day 



Influence 
of Art 



102 STUDY 01' CHILD l.U'E. 

things, which nevertheless may most truly express the 
art spirit — this fact makes it difficult to tell what art 
and what kind of art is really influencing the child, and 
whether it is influencing him in the right directions. 
Color Until he is three years old, for example, and often 

until he is past that age, he is unable to distinguish 
clearly between green, gray, and blue ; and hence these 
cool colors in the decorations around him. or in his 
pictures, have practically no meaning for him. He has 
a right, one might suppose, to the gratification of his 
love for clear reds and yellows, for the sharp, well- 
defined lines and flat surfaces, whose meaning is plain 
to his groping little mind. Some of the best illus- 
trators of children's books have seemed to recognize 
this. For example, Boutet de Monvil in his admirable 
illustrations of Joan of Arc meets these requirements 
perfectly, and yet in a manner which must satisfy any 
adult lover of good art. The Caldecott picture books, 
and Walter Crane's are also good in this respect, and 
the Perkins pictures issued by the Prang Educational 
Co, have gained a just recognition as excellent pictures 
for hanging on the nursery wall. Many of the illustra- 
tions in color in the standard magazines are well worth 
cutting out, mounting and framing. This is esi)ecially 
true of Howard Pylc's work and that of Elizabeth 
Shippen Green. 
Classic Since photogravures and photographs of the master- 

pieces can be had in this country very inexpensively, 
there is no reason whv children should not be made 



Art 





■ IJk.vv, Wiii.i Ulow " 

PEUKINS' PICTURES 



I04 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

acquainted at an early age with the art classics, but 
there is danger in giving too much space to black and 
white, especially in the nursery where the children live. 
Their natural love of color should be appealed to do 
deepen their interest in really good pictures. 

Nevertheless, it is a matter of considerable difficulty 
still to find colored pictures which are inexpensive and 
yet really good. The Detaille prints, while not yet 
cheap, are not expensive either, and are excellent for 
this purpose ; but the insipid little pictures of fairies, 
flowers, and birds may be really harmful, as helping 
to form in the young child's mind too low an ideal of 
beauty — of cultivating in him what someone has called 
"the lust of the eye." 
Plastic What holds true of the pictorial art holds equally 
true of the plastic art. As Prof. Veblin of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago has scathingly declared, our ideals 
of the beautiful are so mingled with worship of ex- 
pense that few of us can see the genuine beauty in any 
object apart from its expensiveness. For this reason 
as well as, perhaps, because of a remnant of barbarism 
in us, we love gold and glitter, and a great deal of 
elaboration in our vases, and are far from being over- 
critical of any piece of statuary which costs a respect- 
able sum. 

A certain appreciation, however, of the real value of 
a good plaster-cast has been gaining among us of late 
years, and many public schools, especially in the large 
cities, have been establishing standards of good taste 



Art 




RELIEF MEDALLION 
By Andrea della Robbia, in Foundling Hospital, Florence. 



io6 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

in this respect. Good casts and bas-reliefs decorate 
their halls and class-rooms. Th-ere are few homes that 
cannot afford to follow their example. But in buying 
these things be not misled by sales and advertised bar- 
gains. It is more than seldom that the placques, casts, 
and vases thus obtained are such as could have any 
valuable influence whatever upon the young lives with 
which they are brought in contact. Meretricious and 
showy ornaments, designed to look as if they cost 
more than they really do, have no business in the 
sincere home where the children are being sincerely 
educated. 

The same general laws apply to music. No art has a 
greater and more insinuating influence. The very 
songs with which the mother sings the baby to sleep 
have an occult influence which is later revealed and 
made plain. Such songs, then, should be simple. They 
may be nothing but improvisations, the mother's mind 
and heart making music, but they should not be melo- 
dramatic songs of the nuisic-hall order. No such 
mawkish sentimentalism as that shown in "The Gypsy's 
Warning," for example, or other songs which belong 
to the cheap theater should have a place in the holy 
of holies — that inmost self of the child — which re- 
sponds to music. 

Ttie simple folk-songs of all nations, Eleanor Smith's 
and most of Mrs. Gaynor's .songs, already mentioned, 
and the songs collected bv Reinecke, called "Fifty 
Children's Songs," are excellent for this purpose. The 



THE DRAMA. 107 

old-fashioned nonsense songs, such as "Billy Boy," 
"Mary had a Little Lamb" and "Hey Diddle Diddle, 
the Cat and the Fiddle," may also have a pleasant and 
harmless place of their own. 

Listrumental music should be on the same general 
order, not loud and showy, but clear, simple, sweet, and 
free from startling effects. Dashing pieces, rag-time 
pieces, marches, two-steps, and familiar tunes with va- 
riations, instead of bringing about a spirit of gentle- 
ness and harmony, actually tend to produce self-assert- 
iveness and quarrelsomeness. Let any mother who 
does not believe this try the effect of an hour of the 
one kind of music on one evening, and an hour of the 
other kind on another evening. The difference will 
be immediately apparent. 

The influence of the drama must not be forgotten. The Drama 
This form of art, fallen so low among us since the time 
of the Puritans that it can scarcely be called an art at 
all, is, nevertheless, the art which perhaps above all 
others has an immediate and yet lasting influence. 
Children are themselves instinctively dramatic. They 
like to compose and act out all sorts of dramas of their 
own, from playing house (which is nothing but a 
drama prolonged from day to day), to such dramatic 
games as Statue-posing and Dumb Crambo. All chil- 
dren like to dress up, to wear masks, and to imitate the 
peculiarities of persons about them ; to try on, as it 
were, the world as they see it, and discover thereby 
how the actors in it feel. Goethe's Wilhelm Meister 



io8 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

has already been referred to. In this — his great book 
on education — he practically bases all education upon 
the drama, and even throws the treatise itself into 
dramatic form. 

This does not mean, however, that all children should 
be permitted to go to the theater as freely as they 
like. No ; the plays which they compose and act for 
themselves have a far higher value educationally than 
most of the spectacular presentations of the old fairy 
tales with which they are usually regaled, and certainly 
more than the sensational melodramas which give 
them false ideas of art and morality. They should go 
sometimes to the theater to see really good and simple 
plays, but they should be oftenei encouraged to get 
up for themselves plays at home. If, as they grow 
older, they are helped to think out their costumes with 
something of historical accuracy, to be true to the 
spirit and scenery of the times in which the representa- 
tions are laid, the activity can be made to increase in 
value to them as the years go by. There is ao other 
art, perhaps, by which the child so intimately links the 
world spirit with his own spirit. It is for this reason 
that the School of Education in the University of Qii- 
cago is equipped with small theaters in which the 
children act. 

As for the art of literature, not all children love read- 
ing, perhaps, but certainly all children love to hear 
stories told,' and the skilful mother will direct this 
spontaneous affection into a love for reading. No 



LITERATURE. 109 

Other single love, except perhaps the love of nature, 
so emancipates the child from the thrall of circum- 
stances. If he can escape from the small ills of life 
into fairy-land merely by opening the covers of a book, 
be sure that these ills will not have power to crush 
him, unless they be very great ills indeed. 

There are those who still believe that fairy tales and Fairy 
fiction of all sorts are nothing but lies. Poor souls, 
with their faces against the stone wall of hard facts, 
they can never look up into the sky and see the winged , - 
and beautiful thoughts freely disporting there. They 
make no distinction between truth and fact, yet truth 
is of the spirit and fact of the flesh ; and truth, because 
it is of the spirit, may appear under many forms, even 
under the form of play. All rightly told and rightly 
conceived fairy-tales are true just as a good picture 
is true. The painter uses oil, turpentine, and pigment 
to represent the wool of a sheep, the water of a pond, 
the green spears of grass. Some literal-minded per- 
son might say that he was lying because he pretented 
that his little square of canvas truthfully represented 
grazing sheep at the brook-side, but most of us recog-. 
nize that he is really telling the truth only in another 
than an every day form. In the same way the writer 
of fairy-tales tells the truth, using the pigments of the 
imagination. 

If children ask whether a given story is true or not, 
answer without hesitation, "yes." It is true, but it is a 
fairy kind of truth ; it is inside truth. There is magic 



no STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

in it and a mystery. The child who is never allowed 
to read fairy tales, the man or the woman who pre- 
fers the newspaper to a good book of fiction, misses 
much in life. It is not only that the imagination — the 
divinest quality of man, because the quality that makes 
man in his degree a creator- -does not receive culture, 
and that he misses the indescribable intellectual ecstasy 
that comes only with the setting free of the wings of 
the mind, but that also he is inevitably shorn of his 
sympathy and shut up to a narrow circle of interests, 
imaginauon ^ov S3'mpathy, abovc all moral qualities, is dependent 

Sympathy upou imagination. If you cannot imagine how you 
would feel under your neighbor's conditions, you can- 
not deeply sympathize with him. The person of un- 
imaginative mind sympathizes only with those whose 
experience and habits are similar to his own. He 
never escapes from the narrow circle of his own per- 
sonality. But the man whose imagination has been 
kept flexible and ready from earliest childhood has 
within him the power of sympathizing with what- 
ever is human — yes ! even with creatures and things 
below the human level. Without imagination^ there- 
fore, it is not possible for a man to be a great scientist, 
for science demands sympathy with processes and ob- 
jects which are not yet human. It is not possible, ob- 
viously, for him to be a great artist of any kind, for all 
art is interpretation of the world by means of the 
imagination. It is not possible for him, even, to be a 
good man in any broad sense, for the man whose 



Booka 



LITERATURE. in 

sympathies are narrow is often found to be guilty of 
injustice towards those who hc,outsidc the pale of those 
sympathies. 

By all means, then, encourage the love of reading in 
your children, and get them the best of story-books to 
read, and subscribe to the best magazines. Read with 
them. Let some reading enter into every day's life ; 
talk over what has been read at the dinner-table, and 
so avoid harmful personalities and disagreeable criti- 
cisms. 

As to the books to choose, choose the best. Gen- 
erally speaking, the best are those that have some 
dignity of age upon them. As in music you chose 
the folksongs, so in children's literature also choose the 
old fashioned fairy stories, such as those collected by 
the Brothers Grimm and by Andrew Lang. Hans 
Christian Andersen's Fairy Stories of course are clas- 
sics. Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales give excellent 
suggestions as to the right use to be made of the old 
mythologies. Many of the supplementary readers now 
being so widely used in the public schools are good, 
simple versions of these old stories which helped to 
make the world what it should be. For the rest there are 
two standard children's magazines which help to form 
a good taste in literature and which are continually sug- 
gestive of the right sort of reading material. These 
are The Youth's Companion and St. Nicholas. 

Finally, all appreciation of literature and art depends Nature 
upon a love of and some knowledge of nature. Fairy ^^^^^ 



112 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

stories and mythology especially are so dependent 
upon nature for their inner meaning and significance 
as scarcely to be intelligible without some knowledge 
of natural processes and laws. Of course, it is true 
that art in its turn idealizes nature and fills her beauti- 
ful form with a beautiful soul ; so that the child who 
is being developed on all sides needs to take his books 
and his pictures out of doors in order to get the full 
good of them. 

"Nature ^^ amouut of music, art, and literature can make up 
for the free life in the fields and under the sky which 
all these arts describe and interpret. If he should be 
so unhappy as to have to choose between nature and 
art, it would be better for him to choose nature, be- 
cause then, perhaps, art might be born in his own 
soul. But there is happily no need for such a painful 
choice. He can sing his little song out of doors with 
the birds and notice how they join in the chorus. He 
can paint evening sunsets with the pine-trees against 
it far better out of doors than indoors with copy 
perched before him. He can look down the aisles 
of the real woods to watch for the enchanted princess, 
or for the chivalrous knight whose story he is reading. 
Art and nature belong together in the unified soul of 
ihe child. Well for him and for the world in which he 
lives if they are never divorced, but he goes on to the 
end loving them both and seeing them both as one. 



CHILDREN'S ASSOCIATES 

If the child was intended to grow into a man of fam- 
ily, merely, family training might be sufficient for him, 
but since he must grow into a member of society, so- 
cial training is as necessary for him as family training. 
Failure to recognize this truth is at the bottom of the 
current misconceptions of the Kindergarten. There 
are still thousands of persons who suppose it is only 
a superior sort of day-nursery where children may be 
safely kept and innocently employed while the mother 
gets the housework done. 

While this might be a laudable enough function to The 
perform, it is by no means the function of the Kinder- 
garten. This method of instruction aims at much 
more. It aims to lay foundations for a complete later 
education, and especially to make firm in the child 
those virtues and aptitudes which, when they are held 
by the majority of men, constitute the safety and wel- 
fare of society. For this reason, no home, however 
well ordered, can supply to the child what the Kinder- 
garten supplies. For the home is necessarily limited 
to the members of one family, while the Kindergarten, 
on the contrary, makes plain to the child the claims 
upon him of society not made up of his kinsfolk. It 
is the wide world in miniature, and if it is a properly 
organized Kindergarten, it will contain within itself a 
wide variety of children — children of wealth and of 



Kindergarten 



114 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

poverty, of ignorance and of gentle breeding — and 
will bring them all under one just rule. For only by 
this commingling of many characters upon a common 
level and under the strict reign of justice can the child 
be fitted practically, and by means of a series of pro- 
gressive experiments, for citizenship in a genuine 
democracy. 

Exclusive Parents sometimes so far miss the aim of the Kin- 

Associates 

dergarten as to desire that instead of such a com- 
mingling there shall be a narrow limit set ; that in the 
Kindergarten shall be only such children as the child 
is accustomed to associate with. But if the Kinder- 
garten acceded to this demand, as it seldom does, it 
would lose much of its usefulness, for every one knows 
that children cannot be permanently sheltered from 
contact with the outside world, nor can they be al- 
ways reared in an atmosphere of exclusiveness, A 
wisdom greater than the mother's has ordered that no 
child shall be so narrowly nourished. If he has any 
freedom whatever, any naturalness of life, he must 
and will enlarge his circle of acquaintances beyond the 
limit of his mother's calling list. 

Indeed, even those Kindergartens which are pro- 
fessedly exclusive, and which confine their ministra- 
tions to the children of one particular neighborhood, 
are obliged by the nature of things to contain nascent 
individualities of almost every type. For no neigh- 
borhood, however equal in wealth and fashion, ever 
produced children of an unvarying quality. In any 



CHlLn KENS' ASSOCIATES. 115 

circle, no matter how exclusive, there are mischievous 
children, children who use bad language, children who 
have sly, mean tricks, children who do not speak the 
truth, and who are in other ways quite as undesirable 
as the children of the poor and ignorant. It is often 
asserted, indeed, that the children of exclusive neigh- 
borhoods very often show more varieties of badness 
than the children of the open street. The records of 
the private Kindergarten as compared with the public 
Kindergarten amply prove this statement. 

Since, then, whether you confine 3 our child to the e^^i 
limits of your own circle or not, )ou cannot success- Example 
fully keep him from playing with children who are 
niore or less objectionable, what are you going to do 
to keep him from the harm of such association? You 
have to make him strong enough to withstand temp- 
tation and resist the force of evil example. Of course, 
he must have as little of the wrong example, especially 
in his younger and tenderer years, as can be managed 
without too greatly checking his activity and curtail- 
ing his freedom. Yet after all he is to be taught a 
positive and not a negative righteousness, and if his 
home training is not sufficient to enable him to stand 
against a certain downward pull from the outside, 
there is something the matter with it. 

While he must not be strained too hard, nor too 
constantly associate with children whose manners put 
his manners to the test, still he ought by degrees, al- 
most imperceptibly, to be accustomed to holding to the 



Ii6 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Social 
Training 



Responsibility 
to Society 



truth, to that which is found good, no matter whether 
his associates find it desirable or not. 

A good Kindergarten is a mother's best help in this 
endeavor, for there her child meets with all sorts of 
other children. The very influence of the place, anJ 
the ever-ready help of the teacher are on his side. 
Every effort he makes to do right is met and welcomed. 
In every stand that he takes against temptation, he is 
unobtrusively reinforced. Moreover, the wrong-doing 
of his comrades is never allowed to retain the attractive 
glitter that it sometimes acquires on the play-ground. 
It is promptly held up to general obloquy, and the good 
child finds to his surprise that he is not the only one 
who thinks that teasing, for example, is mean and 
selfish and that a violent temper is ugly. 

Moreover, in the Kindergarten the sense of social 
responsibility is borne in upon him. Perhaps it comes 
to him first when he is chosen to lead the march and 
finds that he must be careful not to squeeze through 
too narrow places, lest someone get into trouble. In 
dealing out pencils, worsted, and other materials he 
must be careful to show strict impartiality, and give no 
preference to his own personal friends. In a hundred 
small ways he is helped to regulate his own conduct, 
so that it may conduce to the welfare of the whole 
school. 

Where there are no Kindergartens, the task becomes 
a more difficult one for the mother, for it becomes 
necessary, then, that she herself should undertake the 



Sharing 



CHILDREN S- ASSOCIATES. 117 

social training of her child, and this means that she 
must know his playmates, not only through his report 
of them, but through her own observation of them, 
and that they must be sufficiently at home with her 
to betray their true characters in her presence. And this 
means, of course, that she must become her child's 
playmate. There are few women who think that they 
have time for this, but there are also few who would 
not be benefited by it. If anywhere there is a fountain 
of youth, it gushes up invisibly wherever playing chil- 
dren are, and she who plays with them gets sprinkled 
by it. 

If there be no time during the busy day when she 
can justly enter into the children's free play, at least p'}^/'^'^'^'^ 
there is a little while in the late afternoon or in the 
early evening when she can do so, if she will. An hour 
or two a week spent in active association with children 
at their games will make her intimately acquainted 
with all their playmates, and, moreover, constitute her 
a power of first magnitude among them. Her mother- 
hood thus extends itself, and she blesses not only her 
own children, but all those who come near her chil- 
dren. In this respect no Kindergarten can take the 
place of the mother's own companionship with the 
child in his social life. 

In an ideal condition the child has his Kindergar- 
ten in the morning; his quiet hours, one of them en- 
tirely solitary, in the afternoon ; his social time, when 
he, his brothers and sisters and mother, are joined 



ii8 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

The Children's ^^^^ ^^^ Other children and mothers in the neighbor- 
^""^ hood, in the late afternoon, and his family time, with 
both father and mother, in the evening before going 
to bed. 

In thus sharing her child's social life the mother 
admits the claim upon her of social responsibility ; she 
sees that her duty is not to her own home alone, but 
to the other homes with which hers is linked — not to 
her own child alone, but to all children whose lives 
touch her child's life. Her own nature widens with 
the perception, and she enhances her direct teaching 
with the force of a beautiful example. 



STUDIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

There may easily be too many studies and too many 
accomplishments in the life of any child. As our 
schools are constituted there are certainly too many 
studies of the wrong kind being carried on every day. 
But there are also too few studies of the right kind. 
In one of our large cities a test was once made as to 
how much the children who left school at the fifth 
grade, as 70 per cent of them do, had actually learned 
in a way that would be of practical value to them, and 
the results were most discourasfing^. These city chil- Abstract 

* * -^ studies 

dren who could recite their tables of measurements 
with glibness, and who performed with a fair degree of 
success several hundred examples dealing with units 
of measure, could not tell whether their school-room 
floor contained one acre or two hundred and forty ! 
None of them suspected that it contained less than an 
acre, /flthough they could bound the States of the 
Union, and give the principal exports and imports, 
they knew next to nothing of their own city and of 
its actual relation to the countries which they studied 
in their geography lessons. The teachers, in ex- 
planation, laid much of the blame for this state of af- 
fairs upon the parents, saying that they took but little 
interest in their children's studies, and never attempt- 
ed to link them to the things of every-day life. But 
while this claim might be justified to some extent, it 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Dead 
Knowledge 



The New 
Education 



was by no means sufficient to cover the facts of the 
case. The truth is, it was quite as much the teachers' 
^duty to Hnk these abstract studies with concrete facts, 
as it was the parents'. 

Such an experience, however, suggests the manner 
in which parents can best help on the work of children 
in school. So long as these studies are still taught in 
the dead, monotonous way common to text-books, chil- 
dren will be racked nervously, and not benefited men- 
tally in the efifort to master them. Fathers and mothers 
who by the exercise of some ingenuity manage to 
show the child that his arithmetical knowledge is of 
actual help in solving the questions of every-day life ; 
that his history has bearings upon the progress of 
events around him, and that his geography relates to 
actual places which, perhaps, father and mother may 
have seen, or which their books tell about — such fath- 
ers and mothers will make their children's school work 
easier, at the same time that they increase the sum 
of their children's knowledge. It is dead knowledge 
only — knowledge wrenched from its living content — 
that is difficult of digestion. 

It is as natural for a young mind to like to learn, 
as it is for a healthy stomach to be supplied with food ; 
but knowledge, like the food, must be fit for the use 
that is to be made of it and for the organ that is to 
receive it; and the brain, like' the stomach, has a signal 
which it flies to show whether the food is what it wants 
or not. The brain exhibits interest exactly as the 



STUDIES. 121 

stomach exhibits' appetite. The object of scientific 
education is to discover what the spontaneous, univer- 
sal interest of. children of certain ages is, and to meet 
that interest with the fullest possible supply of 
knowledge in every conceivable form. 

Scientific education does not depend upon text- 
books or upon merely verbal explanations, but gets 
the idea home to the child by the means of a varied ap- 
peal to all the senses and sensibilities. For this reason 
the most advanced schools have many more studies and 
what are commonly called accomplishments than the 
public or parochial schools. That is, they add to the 
three r's — reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic — drawing, 
modeling, painting, manual training, physical culture, 
dramatic representation, music, field trips, and labo- 
ratory work. 

Yet this apparently great increase of subjects in the correlation 
number of studies actually lessens the amount of work 
required of the child, because all these different activi- 
ties, by means of what is called correlation, are brought 
to bear upon the same subject. For example, the class 
which goes out for a field trip to visit a near-by brook 
sees the water actually at work, cutting its way to the 
river, and thence to the sea. They measure its force 
and note its effects ; they make a water-color sketch 
of some curve of it ; they notice what birds and insects 
are about ; what flowers grow there ; what indications 
there may be of burrowing animals. When they get 
back to school they model, perhaps, some bird that they 



122 STUDY OP CHILD LI I'll. 

have noticed ; or in the geographical laboratory, with 
streams of water try to reproduce in miniature the 
action of the brook upon the soil through which it 
flows. 

For their arithmetic lesson they estimate the num- 
ber of years the brook must have been flowing to have 
cut its valley to its present depth. They make a full 
report and description of their day's work for their 
reading and writing lesson. They have thus gained 
an immense amount of information, and have done a 
great deal of hard work ; but instead of being nervously 
exhausted, they are bright and exhilarated. Such 
fatigue as they know is wholesome and hts them for 
a sound night's sleep. 
Home When it is impossible to send the child to such a 

school as this, something may be done by supplement- 
ing the ordinary school by some of these procedures. 
The clay jar, the crayons, and the paints have already 
been suggested, and with the parents' interest in the 
child's studies, helping him to model and paint things 
which he studies at school, he will instantly show the 
good effect of the home training and encouragement. 
As for field trips, the regular Sunday walk, or evening 
stroll, may be made to take its place. If you think that 
you do not know enough to teach your child on these 
walks, give him then the privilege of teaching you. 
He will work the harder in cJrder to rise to the occa- 
sion. 



Expedients 



STUDIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 



1^3 



As for physical culture, if your school is without it, 
your barn, your parlor, and your lawn may supply it in 
some sort. In the barn may be a trapeze ; there is 
already the ladder and the hay-loft ; on the lawn may 
be a swing, trees to climb, and the tennis court. In 
your parlor may be a little home dancing school, where 
for a half an hour or so, the children march, skip, or 
two-step to music of your nioking. In the wood shed 
may be a carpenter's bench with real tools, where he 
may work and get some of the good of manual train- 
ing. 

Accomplishments, meaning thereby showy things 
that children do for the edification of guests, are of 
doubtful value. It is pleasant, of course, to have your 
little girl play a piece or two on the piano to entertain 
your visitors, but it is not nearly so important as 
health and strength, and a cheerful temper. Some- 
times all three of these are sacrificed to the two or 
three hours' practice a day. Often, too, this extra 
work after school hours — work full as monotonous 
and nervous and uninteresting as the school work itself 
— is just what is needed to transform a healthy young 
girl into a nervous invalid. This is especially true, if 
she undertakes, as she usually does, to study music 
when she is about thirteen years old — the very time 
when, if wise physicians could regulate affairs to their 
liking, she would be taken out of school altogether 
and required to do nothing more than a little light 
housework every day. 



Physical 
Culture 



Showy 
Accomplish- 
ments 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Natural 
Talent 



'Enthusiasms" 



Of course, if she is naturally musical some kind of 
help and sympathy must be given her in her attempt 
to master the piano or violin or to manage her own 
voice. But while she should be allowed to learn as 
much as her unurged energies permit her to learn, she 
should not be required to practice more than a very 
small amount, say half an hour a day. The bulk of her 
musical education should be acquired in the vacation 
time, when she can give two hours a day without 
overstraining. 

The same general rules hold good of dancing, paint- 
ing, the acquirements of foreign languages, a special 
course of reading, or any other work undertaken in 
addition to the regular school w"ork. This latter, as it 
is now constituted, is quite as severe a nervous and 
intellectual strain as most young people can undergo 
with safety. 

Tliere is one characteristic in young people which 
needs to be noted in this connection : — the desire to 
take up some form of work, to strive with it furiously 
for a brief while, to drop it unfinished ; take up an- 
other with equal eagerness, drop that in turn and go 
on to a third. This performance is peculiarly irritat- 
ing to all systematic and ambitious parents. Some- 
times they rigidly insist that each task shall be finished 
before a new one is assumed. But in reality, is this 
necessary? It seems to be as natural for a young 
mind to set eagerly to work for a short time at each 
new bit of knowledge, as it is for a nursing child to 



STUDIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 125 

require refreshments every two or three hours. It is 
an adult trait to stick to a task, even though a very 
long one, until it is accomplished. The youthful trait 
is to take kindly to a clutter of unfinished tasks. 

The youthful consciousness is of a world full of 
jostling interests. Why not let the children alone, and 
allow them to spring lightly from one enthusiasm to 
another? Of course you will help them to finish, either 
at the first sitting or at the second or at the third, the 
task that was undertaken when that particular enthu- 
siasm was at its height. The drawing which has re- 
mained on the easel during the foot-ball season may be 
suggestivelv brought to notice again in the quiet times 
between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The boat be- 
gun last summer may well be finished in the days of the 
succeeding Spring when all the earth is full of the 
sound of running water. Tims each task, though not 
completed at once, gets done in the end; and the 
mouthful capacity for many sympathies and many de- 
sires has not been narrowed. 

Such a line of conduct presupposes, of course, that ^^^^^""^ 
the parent considers only the child's best welfare, and 
not his own parental vanity. He is not desirous that 
his son shall do anything so well as to attract the at- 
tention and admiration of the neighbors. He is de- 
sirous merely that the boy shall grow up wholesomely 
and happily, showing such superiority as there may 
be in him when the fitting time and opportunity present 
themselves. He will not attempt to make a musician 



of Intellect 



126 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

of an unmusical child, nor a mechanic of an artistic 
child. He will not object to the brilliant and im- 
practical dreams of the young inventor, but will help 
to make them practicable ; and though he may squirm 
at some of the investigations of the budding scientist, 
he will not forbid them. 
Development For such a parent recognizes that the important 
thing, educationally, is to secure the reaction of ex- 
pression upon thought and feeling. That is, he is not 
trying to secure at this time — at any time during 
youth — perfect expression of any thought or feeling, 
but only to deepen feeling and clarify thought by 
encouraging all attempts at expression. He does not 
wish his child to make a finished picture or a perfect 
statue, but to acquire a greater sensitiveness to color 
and form by each attempt to express that color and 
form which he already knows. Thus whatever studies 
and accomplishments his child may be in the act of 
acquiring are seen to be nothing as acquisitions, but 
the child himself is seen to be growing stage by stage 
within the clumsy scaffolding. 

FINANCIAL TRAINING 

The financial training of children ought really to be 
considered under the head of moral training, but in 
some respects it can come equally well under the head 
of intellectual training ; for to spend money well re- 
quires both self-control and intelligence. Some persons 
seem to think that all that a child can be taught in this 



FINANCIAL TRAINING. 127 

regard is to save money, and they meet the situation by 
purchasing various shapes and styles of savings banks. 
But it is entirely possible to teach the child too thor- 
oughly in this respect and to make him so fond of his 
jingling pennies safe within a yellow crockery pig or 
iron cupolaed mansion that he will not spend them for 
any object, however laudable. Others evade the issue 
as long as possible by giving the child no money at 
all ; while most of us pursue an uncertain and wabbly 
course, sometimes giving money, sometimes withhold 
ing it, sometimes exhorting the child to spend, aiul 
sometimes to save. 

In truth spendins: wisely is a difficult problem. As Regular 

' "^ - Allowance 

a rule the child may safely be induced to lay by for a 
season and then encouraged to spend for some gen- 
erous purpose. Christmas and other festivals offer ex- 
cellent opportunities for proper disbursement of the 
hoarded funds. These may be supposed to have accu- 
mulated from irregular gifts ; but as the child grows 
older he should come into receipt of a regular definite 
allowance, perhaps conditioned upon his performance of 
some stated duty. A certain part of his allowance he 
may be permitted to spend upon such frivolities as are 
naturally dear to his young heart ; another part of it 
he should be encouraged — not commanded — to put 
aside for larger purposes. 

The giving of this allowance must not be confused 
with the pernicious habit of bribing the child to the per- 
formance of those little dailv courtesies and duties 



128 STUDY OF CHILD. LIFE. 

which he ought to be vvilhng- to perform out of love 
and a sense of right. A certain part of his daily work, 
such as seeing that the match-boxes all over the house 
are filled, or some similar share of the general labor of 
the household, may be regarded as that for which he is 
paid wages; and any extra task which does not justly 
belong to him, he may sometimes be paid for perform- 
ing ; but not always. For instance, he ought to be will- 
ing to run to the grocery for mother without demand- 
ing that he be paid a penny for the job ; yet sometimes 
the penny may be forthcoming. The point is that he 
should be ready to Vv'ork, even to work hard, without 
pay, and yet that he should never feel that his mother 
withholds pay from him when she can give it and he 
receive it without injury. 
Spending Whcu the moHcy is once his, ]ie should be allowed 

to feel the full happiness and responsibility of posses- 
sion, and if he insists upon spending it foolishly, should 
be allowed to do it and to suffer to the full the un- 
comfortable consequer'ces. If, on the contrary, he will 
not spend it at all, his mother must use every means in 
her power to lessen the desire for ownership and to 
increase his love for others and his r^agerness to please 
them. 

As judgment develops the allo'.vance may v.'e'I be 
increased to provide for necessities in trie way of inci- 
dentals and clothing until at the "ag^e of discretion" he 
is in full charge of the funds for his personal exj:>enscs. 
He should be encoui'jged to apply his knowledge of 



Foolishly 



FINANCIAL TRAINING. 129 

commercial arithmetic in the keeping of personal ac- 
counts. 

Experience in spending a fixed amount of money is 
especially needful for the daughters. Most young men 
have the value of money and financial responsibility 
forced upon them in the natural course of events, but 
too often the young wife has not had the training qual- 
ifying her for the equal financial partnership which 
should exist in the ideal marriage. 




THE INFANT GALAHAD — FIRST SIGHT OF THE GRAII, 

From the mural paintings by Edwin A. Abbey in the 
Boston Public Library 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING 

If the common school is not sufficient for the secular 
education of the child, certainly the Sunday School 
is not sufficient for his religious education. In the 
common schools the teachers are more or less trained 
for their work. It is a life occupation with them ; by 
means of it they earn their living, and their daily 
success with tlTeir pupils marks their rate of progress 
toward higher fields of endeavor. Nothing of this Sunday 
sort is true in the Sunday School. While occasionally Teacher* 
it happens that a day school teacher becomes a Sunday 
School teacher, this is seldom true, for most teachers 
who teach during the week feel that they need the 
Sunday for rest ; and while some Sunday School 
teachers betray a commendable earnestness and zeal 
for their work, and associations and conventions have 
latterly added somewhat to the joint effort to better 
the conditions, still it remains true that the teaching in 
the Sunday Schools is far below the pedagogic level 
of the common schools. Yet the subject which is dealt 
with in the Sunday Schools, instead of being of less 
importance than that dealt with in the common schools, 
is of pre-eminently greater importance. Because of its 
subtlety, its intimacy with the hidden springs of con- 
duct, it calls for the exercise ot the very highest teach- 
ing skill. 



132 SlUUY Ot CHILD LIFE. 

Some sort of recognition of these two facts — that 
Sunday School teachers are in most cases very inade- 
quately trained for their work, and that the work 
itself is of greai importance, and of equally great dif- 
ficulty — has led to the issuing of many quarterlies, 
International Lesson Leaflets, and other Sunday School 
aids. Necessary as such help may be under present 
conditions, they cannot possibly meet the manv diffi- 
culties of the case. If the central committees, who 
issue these leaflets, were composed wholly of the wisest 
men and women on earth, it would still be impossible 
for them to give lessons to the millions of children in 
their various denominations which should meet the 
personal needs, and daily interests of these young 
people. 
Sunday ^^ ^ conscqucncc, Sunday School teaching is and 
Teachhi°g must be largely theoretical and still more largely ex- 
egetical, and with neither theory nor exegesis is the 
young mind of the developing child very much con- 
cerned. What he needs is not the historical side of 
religion or of that great body of religious literature 
which we call the Bible, but a living faith which links 
all that was taught by the prophets and apostles, cen- 
turies ago, with what is happening in the child's own 
town and family at that very moment. It is a wide 
gap to bridge, and it cannot be bridged by a semi- 
historical review backed by picture cards, golden texts, 
and stars for good behavior. These things are merely 
the marks of an endeavor to fitly accomplish a great 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 133 

task, an endeavor almost absurdly out of proportion 
to this aim, rendered significant, however, because it 
is the earnest of a great faith and a great hope. 

So far as Sunday Schools help children, it is because 
of this spirit of faithfulness, and not because of the 
form which it has assumed. 

In choosing, then, whether you shall send your 
child to a Sunday School, choose by the presence 
or absence of this spirit. If you know the teachers 
of the Sunday School to be earnest, loving, and de- 
voted, you may with safety assume that their per- 
sonal influence will make up for what is archaic in 
their method of teaching. Where the spirit is present 
only in a few, or where it manifests itself only occa- 
sionally, as at seasons of revival, you may well hesi- 
tate to let your child attend. A great improvement 
would come about if parents would show a greater 
mterest and encourage proper teachers to take charge 
of classes. It is a thankless task at present. 

There is one great danger in the teaching of any theory 
Sunday School— one which the best of them cannot ^°*°''' 

■U 11 1 1 Practice 

Wholly escape— and that is, that, in the very nature 
of things, they teach theory and not practice. Harm- 
ful as this may be, indeed as it surely is in adult life, 
it does not begin to be so harmful as it does in youth, 
for the young child, as we have seen, is and should 
remain a unit in consciousness. His life, his intellect, 
and his will are one— an undivided trinity. The 
divorce of these three is at any time a regrettable oc- 



tu 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 



Useless 
Truths 



The Mother 
as Teacher 



currence ; the divorce of them in early life is an almost 
irreparable disaster. 

The current theory is that children will learn many 
truths in the Sunday School which they will not put 
into practice then, perhaps, but which they will find 
useful in later life. This fallacy underlies, of course, 
almost all conventional education and has only been 
overthrown by the dictum of modern psychology, that 
there is but small storage accommodation in the brain 
for facts which have no immediate relation to life. 
What may be termed the saturating power of the brain 
is limited, and after it has soaked up a rather small 
number of truths, it can contain no more until it has 
in some way disposed of those that it still has — either 
by making them part of its own living structure, which 
is done only by making immediate application of them ; 
or by dropping them below the threshold of conscious- 
ness, that is, in common language, forgetting them. 
Moreover, the brain may form the habit of easily 
dropping all that relates to a given subject into the 
limbo where unused things lie disregarded, and when 
this becomes the habitual method of disposing of re- 
ligious instruction, the results are particularly deplor- 
able. 

Feeble as her own knowledge may be, a mother has 
certain advantages as a teacher of her children over any 
but the exceptional Sunday school teacher. For, first, 
she knows the children, and, knowing them, knows their 
needs. Secondly, she knows their dailv lives and con- 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 135 

tinually during the week can point out wherein they fail 
to live up to their Sunday's lesson. And again and 
most important, she loves them tenderly, and from love 
flows wisdom. Usually the mother gives her own chil- 
dren a love far beyond that given by anyone else, and 
this deeper love sharpens her intellectual faculties and 
makes her both a keen observer and a good tactician. 
Giving her children some simple lesson on Sunday aft- 
ernoon, she finds a hundred opportunities to make the 
lesson living and vital to them during the succeeding 
week. 

In the early years of the child's life, the mother is 
usually the one to decide whether he shall attend 
Sunday School or not, but as he approaches adolescence 
he is likely to take the matter in his own hands, and 
if it happens that some revivalist or a new stirring 
preacher comes in contact with his life at this time, 
he is very likely to be swept off his feet with a sudden 
zeal of religious enthusiasm, which his mother fears Religious 
to check. The reports of memberships, baptisms, etc., 
show that a large number become converted and join 
the church during adolescence. While this does not 
in the least argue that the conclusions that they reach 
at that time are therefore unsound — for adolescence is 
not a disease, nor a form of insanity, but a normal, 
if excitable, condition — still it does prove, when 
coupled with the further fact that in adult life these 
young converts often relapse into their previous con- 
dition, that a more lastinig basis for religion must be 



136 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

found than the emotional intensity of this period of life. 
A religion to be lasting must be coldly reaffirmed by 
the intellect : the dictum of the heart alone is not suf- 
ficient. Religious enthusiasm, like all other forms 
of enthusiasm, tends of itself to bring about the oppo- 
site condition, and to be succeeded by fits of despond- 
ency and bitterness as intense and severe as the en- 
thusiasm itself was brilliant and ecstatic. The history 
of all great religious leaders amply proves this. They 
had their bitter hours of wrestling with the powers of 
darkness, hours which almost counter-balanced the 
hours of uplift. Only clearly thought-out intellectual 
convictioiis reinforced by the habit of daily righteous 
living can secure the soul against such emotional 
aberrations. 
Danger of Therefore, although the religious excitability of 

adolescence must not be thwarted lest it be turned into 
less helpful channels, and lest religion lose all the 
beauty and compelling power lent to it by the glow of 
youthful feelings, yet it must be so balanced and 
oi^lered by a clear reason, and especially by the habit 
of putting each enthusiasm to the test of conduct, that 
the young mind may remain true to its lav\^ of growth, 
developing harmoniously on all three sides at once. 

The danger of permitting a young boy or girl while 
under the influence of this emotional instability to 
enter into any special form of religious service is the 
danger of reaction. He will discover that all is not 
as his early vision led him to suppose — because that 



Period 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 137 

early vision was of things too high and holy for any 
earthly realization — and he may turn against what 
seems to him to be hypocrisy and pretense with a bit- 
terness proportioned to his former love. Many honest, 
faithful men and women remain in this state of re- 
action for the rest of their lives. 

Nevertheless, it will not do to thwart these young ADifflouit 
beginnings. They must neither be nipped in the bud 
nor forced to a premature ripening. Above all they 
must not be suffered to endure the killing frost of 
ridicule. The period is a difficult one, but, as Dr. Stanley 
Hall points out, it is supremely the mother's oppor- 
tunity, if she can hold her boy's or her girl's con- 
fidence now, can ease their eager young hearts with 
an intelligent sympathy, she can probably keep them 
from any public commitment. Perhaps they may 
desire to confide in the minister ; if so, let the mother 
confide in him first. Perhaps they have bosom friends, 
passing through the same stirring experience ; then let 
the mother win over these friends. , 

Her object should be to shelter this beautiful senti- 
ment ; to keep it safe from exposure ; above all, to 
utilize it as a motive-power — as an incentive to noble 
action. The Kindergarten rule is a good one : as 
quick as a love springs in a child's breast, give it 
something to do. When the love of God awakes 
there, give it much to do. Usually, the only way open 
is to join the church, to make a public profession. The 
wise mother will see to it that there are other ways, 



Bible 



138 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

urging the young knight to serve his King by going 
forth into the world immediately about him and fight- 
ing against all forms of evil, giving him a practical, 
definite quest. Tlie result of such restriction of public 
speech, and stimulation of private deed, will be a sin- 
cere, lowly-minded religion, so inwoven with the truest 
activities as to be inseparable from them. Such a 
religion knows no reaction. 

Now is supremely the time for a study of the Bible, 
study Interesting as a Divine Story Book to the young chil- 
dren, it becomes the Book of Life to these older ones. 
In teaching it at home, a few simple rules need to be 
borne in mind. The first is that the Bible must be 
thought of not as a series of disconnected texts and 
thoughts, but as a connected wliOle. The division of 
King James' Bible into verses and chapters is but 
poorly adapted to this purpose. The illogical, strange 
character of the paragraphing, as measured by the 
standards of modern English, is apparent at a glance, 
for often a verse will end in the middle of a sentence, 
and the sentence be concluded in the next verse. The 
chapters in the same way often fail to finish the sub- 
ject with which they deal, and sometimes include sev- 
eral subjects. Therefore, the mother who undertakes 
to read the Bible to her children needs first to go 
through the lesson herself, and to decide what sub- 
ject, not what chapter, she will take up that day. There 
is a reader's edition of the Bible, and one called the 
"Children's Bible," both of which aim to leave out all 



RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 



139 



repetition and references and to arrange the Bible 
narrative in a simple, consecutive order, nevertheless 
employing the beautiful Bible language. These edi- 
tions might prove of considerable help to mothers 
who feel unequal to doing the work by themselves. 

Second, comparable to this in importance is the 
reading of the Bible and talking about it in a perfectly 
ordinary tone of voice ; for what you want is to make 
the Bible teachings live in to-day. You must not, 
therefore, suggest by your tone or manner that they 
belong to another day, and that they are, in some sense, 
to be shut out from common life and speech. This does 
not mean such common use of Biblical phrases in 
every day conversation as to cause it to grow into 
that form of irreverence known as cant, but it does 
mean simple usage of Bible thought, and the effort to 
fit it to the conditions of daily life. Such a habit in 
itself will force any family to discriminate as to what 
things in the Bible are living and eternal, and what 
things belong riglitly to that far away time and place 
of which the Bible narrative treats, thus practicing 
both teacher and pupils — that is, both parents and 
children — in the art of finding the universal spirit of 
truth under all temporal disguises. Without this art 
the Bible is a closed book, even to the closest student. 

Again, every effort should be made to help the home 
Bible class to understand the period studied in that 
week's lesson, and to this end secular literature and 
art should be freely called upon, not only such stories, 



Children's 
Bible 



Making 
Lessons 
Real 



140 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

for example, as "Ben Hur," but other stories not 
necessarily religious, which deal with the same time 
and place ; they are of great help in putting vividly 
before the children and parents the temporal setting 
of the eternal stories. Cannon Farrar's "Life of 
Christ" is a very great help to the realization of the 
New Testament scenes, as is also Tissot's "Pictorial 
Life of Christ." In short every art should be made to 
deepen and clarify the conceptions roused by the 
study of the Bible. 

In The mother who undertakes the tremendous task of 

rightly training her children, will need to exercise 
herself daily in all the Christian virtues — and if there 
are any Pagan ones not included under faith, hope, 
charity, patience, and humility, to exercise those also. 
With these virtues to support her, she will be able to 
use whatever knowledge she may acquire. Without 
them she can do nothing. 



TEST QUESTIONS 

The following questions constitute the "written reci- 
tation" wliich the regular members of the A. S. H. E. 
answer in writing and send in for the correction and 
comment of the instructor. They are intended to 
emphasize and fix in the memory the most important 
points in the lesson. 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

PART III 



Read Carefully, In answering these questions you are 
earnestly requested not to answer according to the text-book 
where opinions are asked for, but to answer according to 
conviction. In all cases credit will be given for thought and 
original observation. Place your name and full address at 
the head of the paper; use your own words so that your 
instructor may be sure that you understand the subject. 



1. How can you bring the influence of art to bear 

upon your child? 

2. What is the influence of music? How can you 

employ it? 

3. Do you believe in fairy tales for children ? State 

your reasons. 

4. How would you encourage the love of nature in 

your child? 

5. What is it that the Kindergarten can do better 

than the home? 

6. Suppose that your child had some undesirable 

acquaintances, how would you meet the situa- 
tion? 

7. What can you say of accomplishments for chil- 

dren? 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE. 

8. If manual training, physical culture, domestic 

science, etc., are not taught in your schools and 
you wish your children to .get some of the ad- 
vantages of these studies, how will you set 
about it? 

9. What do you understand to be the correlation of 

studies ? 

10. Should parents become acquainted with the teach- 

ers of their children and their methods? Why? 

11. How may children be taught the use of money? 

12. State the advantages and disadvantages of Sunday 

schools. What have they meant in your own 
experience ? 

13. How will you train your child religiously? Can 

anyone take this task from you? 

14. What rules must be borne in mind in teaching the 

Bible at home ? 

15. Give some experience of your own (or of a 

friend) in the training of a child wherein a 
success has been achieved. 

16. Are there any questions you would like to ask 

or subjects which you wish to discuss in con- 
nection with the lessons on the Study of Child 
Life? 



Note. — 'After completing the test sign it with your full 
name. 



EDUCATION AND LIFE 

I. 

Typical Schools 




Home School for Girls 



WiSllSJt^ 






■-^i.."' 




If. 

"To This Favor Shall She Come at Last" 





Supplementary Notes 
on 

STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

By Marion Foster Washburn 



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 

In this "Study of Child L^fe" we have considered 
some of the fundamental principles of education. When 
we think of the complex inheritance of the American 
people it is, perhaps, no wonder that many families 
contain individuals varying so widely from each other 
as to seem to require each a complete system of edu- 
cation all to himself. We are a people born late in the 
history of the race, and our blood is mingled of the 
Norseman's, the Celt's, and the Latin's. Advancing 
civilization alone would tend to make us more complex, 
our problems more subtle; but in addition to this we 
are mixed of all races, and born in times so strenuous 
that, sooner or later, every fibre of our weaving is 
strained and brought into prominence. 

In the letters from my students this fact, with which 
I was already familiar in a general sort of way, has 
been brought more particularly to my attention. In 
all cases, the situation has been responsible for much 
confusion and difficulty. In a good many, it has led 
to family tragedies, varying in magnitude from the 
unhappiness of the misunderstood child to that of the 
lonely woman, suffering in adult life from the faults 
of her upbringing, and the failure of the family ties 
whose need she felt the more as the duties of moth- 

141 



142 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

erhoocl pressed upon her. If it were possible for 
me to violate the confidence of my pupils I could prove 
very conclusively that the old-fashioned system of 
bringing up children on the three R's and a spanking 
did not work so well as some persons seem to think. 
I could prove' that the problem has grown past the 
point where instinct and tradition may be held as suffi- 
cient to solve it. Everyone, seeing these letters, would 
be obliged to confess, "Yes, indeed, here is plain need 
of training for parents." Yet, at the same time, these 
same persons would be tempted to inquire, "But can 
any training meet such a difficult situation?" 

Here is despair ; and some cause for it. When one's 
own mother has not understood one ; when one has 
lived lonely in the midst of brothers and sisters who 
are more strange than strangers ; when one's childhood 
is full of the memory of obscure but intense sufiferings, 
one flies for relief, perhaps, to any one who offers it 
hopefully enough ; but one does not really expect to 
get it. Can training, especially by correspondence, 
meet the need? 

Not wholly, of course, let us be frank to admit. No 
amount of theory, however excellent, can take the place, 
of the drill given only m the hard school of experience. 
But when the theory is not merely theory, but sound 
principle, based on scientific observation, confirmed by 
the wide experience of many persons, it is as valuable 
in practical life as any rule of mathematics to the prac- 
tical engineer. We all know that the technical cor- 
respondence schools really do fit young mechanics to 



APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES 143 

move on and up in the trade. By correspondence 
he is given what Froebel calls the interpreting word. 
The experience in application the student has to sup- 
ply himself. 

So in the matter of education. There are genuine 
principles which underlie the development of every 
child that lives— even the feeble-minded, deaf, and 
blind. Read Helen Keller's wonderful Hfe, if you 
want to see the proof of it. Just as surely as a child 
has two legs and has to learn to walk on them by a 
series of prolonged experiments, just so surely he has 
(a) a sense of justice, (b) an instinct for freedom, (c) 
a love of play. Every kind of child has all these in- 
stincts, as much as he has love for food and drink ; and 
to educate him consists in developing these instincts 
into (a) the habit of dealing justly by others, (b) the 
right use of freedom, (c) love of work. The particu- 
lar methods may differ. The principles do not and 
CANNOT DIFFER. 

She who would succeed in child training must hold 
to these truths with all her might and main— making 
them, in fact, her religion, for they are the doctrines 
of the Christian religion as applied to motherhood. 
To hold them lightly, or even experimentally, will not 
do. One must walk in faith. And that the faith may 
not be blind, but may be based on experience and un- 
derstanding, let me suggest this means of proof : In- 
stead of asking yourself how the laws laid down in 
these little books would fit this or that particular child, 
your own or another's, ask how they would have fitted 



144 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

you, if they had been applied to you by your own 
mother. Take the chapter on faults, pick out the one 
which was yours, in childhood — oh, of course, you've 
got over it now ! — think of some bitter trouble into 
which that fault hurried you, and conceive that, instead 
of the punishment you did receive, you had been 
treated as the lesson suggests — what, do you think, 
would have been the result? And so with the other 
chapters — even with that much-mooted question of 
companionship. Test the truth of them all by their 
imaginary application to the child you know best. 
When you can, find the principles that your own 
mother did employ in your education, and examine the 
result of what she did. Some of the principles will 
suddenly become luminous to you, I am sure ; and some 
things that happened in the past receive an expla- 
nation. 

Such a self-examination, to be of any value, must 
be rigidly honest. There is too much at stake here 
for you to permit any remnants of bitter feeling to 
influence your judgment — and you will surely be sur- 
prised to find how many bitter resentments will show 
that they yet have life. The past is dead, as far as 
your power to change it is concerned ; but it lives, as 
a thing that you can use. Here is your own child, to be 
helped or hindered by what you may have endured. It 
will all have been worth while, if by means of it you 
can save him from some bruises and falls. Every bit- 
terness will be sweetened if you can look through it 



OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN 145 

and find the truth which shall serve this dearer little 
self who looks to you for guidance. 

Then, when you have found the principles true — and 
not one minute before ! — put them rigidly into prac- 
tice. I say, not one minute before you are convinced, 
because it is better to hold the truth lightly in the mem- 
ory as a mere interesting theory you have never had 
time to test, than to swallow it, half assimilated. Truth 
is a real and living power, once it is applied to life ; and 
to half-use it in doubt, and fear, is to invite indiges- 
tion and consequent disgust. Take of these teachings 
that which you are sure is sound and right, and use 
it faithfully, and unremittingly. Be careful that no 
plea of expediency, no hurry of the moment, makes you 
false. If you are thus faithful in small things, one 
after the other, in a series fitted to your own peculiar 
constitution, the others will prove themselves to you ; 
for they are coherent truths, and not one lives to 
itself alone, but joins hands with all the rest. Being 
truths, they fit all human minds — yours and mine, and 
those of our children, no matter how diverse we may be. 

OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN 
Isn't it ridiculously true that, as soon as we get 
enlightened ourselves, we burn to enlighten the rest of 
the world? We do not seem to remember our own 
feelings during the years of darkness, and the con- 
tentment of those who remain as we were surpasses 
our power of comprehension. It is really comforting 
to my own sense of impatience and balked zeal to find 



146 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

how many of my pupils are dreadfully concerned about 
other people's children. This one's heart burns over 
the little boy next door who is shamefully mismanaged 
and who already begins to show the ill effects of his 
treatment. That one has a sister-in-law who refuses 
to listen to a word spoken in season. 

Between my smiles — those comfortable smiles with 
which we recognize our own shortcomings — I, too, am 
really concerned about the sister-in-law's children. It 
is true that their mother ought to be taught better, 
and that, if she isn't, those innocent lambs are going 
to suffer for it. Off at this distance, without the ties 
of kindred to draw me too close for clear judgment, 
I see, though, that we have to walk very cautious- 
ly here, for fear of doing more harm than good. Bet- 
ter that those benighted women never heard the 
name of child-study, than to hear it only to greet it 
with rebellion and hatred. Yet to force any of our 
principles upon her attention when she is in a hostile 
mood — or to force them, indeed, in any mood — is to 
invite just this attitude. 

M'ost of us, by the time that we are sufficiently 
grown up to undertake the study of child life, have 
outgrown the habit of plainly telling our friends to 
their faces just what we think of their faults; yet this 
is a safe and pleasant pastime beside that other of try- 
ing to tell them how to bring up their children. You 
stand it from me, because you have invited it, and per- 
haps still more because you never see me, and the per- 



OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN W 

sonal element enters only slightly and pleasantly into 
our relationship. I sometimes think that students pour 
out their hearts to me, much as we used to talk to our 
girl friends in the dark. I'm very sure I should never 
dare to say to their faces what I write so freely on the 
backs of their papers ! 

You see, the adult, too, has his love of freedom ; and 
while he can stand an mdirect, impersonal preach- 
ment, which he may reject if he likes without apology, 
he will not stand the insistence of a personal appeal. 
I've let "Little Women" shame me into better conduct, 
when I was a girl, at times when no direct speech from 
a living soul would have brought me to anything but 
defiance — haven't you? We have to apply our prin- 
ciples to the adult world about us, as well as to the 
child-world,, and teach, when we permit ourselves to 
teach at all, chiefly by example, by cheerful confession 
of fallibility, by open-mindedness. Above all things, 
we have to respect the freedom of these others, about 
whom we are so inconveniently anxious. 

It is fair, though, that the spoken word should in- 
terpret what we do. It is fair enough to tell your 
sister-in-law what you think and ask her judgment 
upon it, if you can trust yourself not to rub your own 
judgment in too hard. If you are unmarried, and a 
teacher, you will have to concede to her preposterous 
marital conceit a humble and inquiring attitude, and 
console your flustered soul by setting it to the ingeni- 
ous task of teaching by means of a graduated series of 



148 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

artful inquiries. Don't, oh don't ! seek for an out- 
spoken victory. Be content if some day you hear her 
proclaim your truth as her own discovery. It never 
was yours, anyway, any more than it is hers or than it 
is mine. Be glad that, while she claims it, she at least 
holds it close. 

If you are a mother, you are in an easier case. You 
can do to yout own children just what she ought to do 
to hers, and tell about it softly, as if sure of her sym- 
pathy. If you are very sincere in your desire for the 
welfare of her child, you may even ask her advice about 
yours, and so gain the right to offer a little in exchange 
— say one-tenth of what she gives. 

All these warnings apply to unsought advice — a 
dangerous thing to offer under any circumstances. 
Except there is a real emergency, you had better avoid 
it. If your nephew or little neighbor is winning along 
through his troubles fairly well, best keep hands off. 
But if you absolutely must interfere, guard yourself 
as I suggest, and remember that, even then, you will 
assuredly get burned, if you play long with that dan- 
gerous fire of maternal pride ! 

When your advice is sought, you are in a different 
position. Then you have a right to speak out, though 
if you are wise and loving you will temper that right 
with charity. No one can be too gentle in dealing 
with a soul that honestly asks for help ; but one can 
easily be too timid. Think, under these circumstances, 
of yourself not at all ; but put yourself as much as 



THE SEX QUESTION ,^ 

possible in her place ; be led by her questions ; and aw- 
swer fearlessly from the depths of the best truth you 
hold. Then leave it. You can do no more. What 
becomes of that truth, once you have lovingly spoken 
it, is no more of your concern. 

THE SEX QUESTION 

Always convinced of the importance of this subject, 
my convictions have deepened to the point of dismay 
since learning, through this school, of the many women 
who have suffered and who continue to suffer, both 
mentally and physically, because, in early girlhood, 
they were not taught those finer physiological facts 
upon which the very life of the race depends. Yet, 
strangely enough, these very victims' find it almost 
impossible to give their children the knowledge neces- 
sary to save them from a similar fate. It is as if the 
lack of early training in themselves leaves them help- 
less before a situation from which they suffer but 
which they have never mastered. 

Of course such feelings, in themselves morbid, are 
not to be trusted. Faced with a task like this we have 
only to ask ourselves not "Is it hard?" but "Is it in 
truth my task ?" If it is, we may be sure that we shall 
be given strength to do it, provided only that we are 
sincere in our willingness to do it and do not count our 
feelings at all. 

It is preposterous to have such feelings, in the first 
place. They are wholly the product of false teaching. 
For we have no right — as we recognize when we stop 



150 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

to think about it in calmness of spirit, and apart from 
our special difficulty — to sit in scornful judgment upon 
any of the laws of nature. When we find ourselves 
in rebellion against them, what we have to do is to 
change the state of our minds, for change the laws 
we cannot. If we women could inaugurate a gigantic 
strike against the present method of bearing children 
— and I imagine that millions would join such a strike 
if it held out any promise of success ! — we still could 
accomplish nothing. To fret ourselves into a frazzle 
over it, is to accomplish less than nothing ; — it is to 
enter upon the pathway to destruction. 

In teaching our children, then, we have first 'to con- 
quer ourselves — that painful, reiterated, primal neces- 
sity, which must underlie all teaching. Having done 
so, we shall find our task easier than we supposed. 
The children's own questions will lead us ; and if we 
simply make it a rule never to answer a question 
falsely no matter how far it may probe, we shall find 
ourselves not only enlightening but receiving enlight- 
enment. For nothing is so sure an antidote to morbid- 
ness as the unspoiled mind of a child. He looks at the 
facts with such a calm, level gaze that proportions are 
restored to us as we follow his look. 

Many of my letters show that adult women, wives 
and mothers, still grope for the truth that lies plain to 
the eyes of any simple child — the truth that there Is 
no such thing as clean and unclean, only use and 
misuse. Others, through love, and the splendid reve- 



THE SEX QUESTION 151 

lations that it makes, have risen so far above their 
former misconceptions that they fear to tell a child 
the facts before he has experienced the love. I can 
imagine that in an ideal world some such reticence 
might be good and right — but this is far from an ideal 
world. We have to train our children relatively, not 
absolutely, in the knowledge that we do not control 
all their environment. I think the solution of the diffi- 
culty is to teach the facts of sex in a perfectly calm, 
unemotional, matter-of-fact manner, just as one teaches 
the laws of digestion. When knowledge of evil is 
thrust upon our child let us be sorry with him that 
those other children have never been taught, and that 
they are doing their bodies such sad mischief. But 
don't exaggerate it ; don't be too shocked ; don't con- 
demn the poor little sinners, who are also victims, too 
severely. Charity toward wrong-doing is the best 
prophylactic against imitation. We never feel the 
lure of a sin which grieves us in another ; but often 
the call (Jf a sin which we too strongly condemn. Be- 
cause the very strength of the condemnation rouses 
our imaginations, is in itself an emotion, and, since 
it is certainly not a loving one, must necessarily be 
linked with all other unloving and therefore evil emo- 
tions. As far as possible, let us keep feeling out of 
this subject, until such time as the true and beautiful 
feeling of love between husband and wife arises and- 
upliits it. 



152 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

FATHERS 

And now comes the editor of these lessons and ac- 
cuses me of neglecting the fathers ! Nothing in this 
world could be farther from my thoughts. Not only 
do I agree with him that "all ordinary children have 
fathers, and it might be well to put in a paragraph ;" 
but I am cheerfully willing to write a whole book on 
the subject, provided that a mere modicum of readers 
can be assured me. I fairly ache to talk to fathers, 
having a really great ideal of them, and whenever 
a class of them can be induced to take up a correspond- 
ence course I shall be glad to conduct it. 

Joking aside, however, I truly feel that the saddest 
lack many of our children have to suffer is the lack 
of fathers ; and the saddest lack our men have to suffer 
is the lack of children. So little are most men awake 
to this subject that I am perfectly convinced that much 
of the prevalent "race suicide" is due to their objec- 
tions to a large family, rather than to their wives'. 
Upon them comes the burden of support. They get 
few of the joys which belong to children, and nearly 
all of the woes. Seldom do they share the games of 
their offspring, or their happy times ; and almost al- 
ways the worst difficulties are thrust upon them for 
solution. Not that they often solve them ! How can 
we expect it? 

There is Edgar growing very untruthful and defiant. 
We have concealed all the first stages of the disease 
for fear of bothering poor tired papa. At last it 



FATHERS 153 

reaches such a height that we can conceal it no longer. 
We fling the desperate boy at the very head of the 
bewildered father, and then have turns of bitter dis- 
appointment because the remedies that are applied may 
be so much cruder, even, than our own. Here is a 
boy who gets close to his father only to find the prox- 
imity very uncomfortable ; and a father who becomes 
acquainted with his son only through the ugly revela- 
tions of his worst faults. 

Not but that the fathers are somewhat to blame, too. 
Without urging by us, they ought, of course, to take 
a spontaneous interest in the lives for which they are 
responsible. They ought to, and they often do; but 
their interest is sometimes ill-advised, and conse- 
quently unwelcome. There are fathers whose interest 
is a most inconvenient thing. When they are at 
home, they run everything, growl at everything, upset, 
as like as not, all that the mother has been trying to 
do during the day. I know wives who are distinctly 
glad to encourage their husbands in the habit of lunch- 
ing down-town, so that they can have a little room for 
their own peculiar form of activity. And maybe we 
all have times of sympathizing with the woman in this 
familiar story : There was a man once who never left 
the house without a list of directions to his wife as to 
how she should manage things during his absence. 

"Better have the children carry umbrellas this morn- 
ing ; it's going to rain," said he, as he went out of the 
door. "Be sure to put on their rubbers. And since 



154 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

the baby is so croupy I'd get out his winter flannels, if 
I were you." 

"Yes, dear," said the patient wife. "Make your 
mind easy. I'll take just as good care of them as if 
they were my own children." Of course this is an 
extreme case. 

There are other fathers whose whole idea of the 
parental relation seems to be indulgence. No system 
of discipline, however mild, can be carried out when 
such a man wins the children's hearts and ruins their 
dispositions. It is he, isn't it? (I don't quite recol- 
lect the tale) who was sent, after death, to the warm 
regions, there to expiate his many sins of omission. 
And his adoring children, who had been hauled to 
heaven by the main strength, let us say, of their mother, 
found that the only thing they could do for him was 
to call out celestial hose company number one and 
ask them to play awhile upon the overheated apart- 
ments of poor tired papa. 

The truth is — sit close and let no man hear what 
we say ! — that these fathers are much what wc, the 
mothers, make them. If, under the mistaken idea of 
saving father from all the worries of the children, we 
hurry the youngsters ofif to bed before he comes home 
in the evening, conceal our heart-burnings over them, 
do our correspondence-school work in secret and soli- 
tude, meditate in the same fashion over plans for their 
upbringing, talk to our neighbors but never to him 
about the daily troubles, how can we expect any man 



FATHERS 155 

on earth, no matter how susceptible of later angelic 
growth, to become a wise and devoted father? Tired 
or not, he is a father, not a mere bread-winner. 
Whether he likes it at the moment or not, it is for his 
soul's health for him to enter into the full life of his 
family, including those problems which are at the very 
heart of it, after his day of grinding, and very likely 
unloving, work at the office. Here love enters to in- 
terpret, to soften, to make all principles live. Here 
alone he can give himself to those gentler forms of 
judgment which are necessary as much to the com- 
pletion of his own character as to the happiness and 
welfare of his wife and children. Someone has said 
that we wrong our friends when we ask nothing of 
them ; and certainly it is true that we wrong our hus- 
bands when we do not demand big and splendid things 
of them. 

That word demand troubles me a little. So many 
women demand — and demand terribly ! But what they 
demand is indulgence, sympathy, interest — I think 
sometimes that they crave a man's utter absorption in 
themselves much as a man craves strong drink. It is 
their form of intoxication. Such demanding is not, of 
course, what I mean. Demand nothing for yourself, 
beyond simple justice. Not love, for that flies at the 
very sound of demand, and dies before nagging. But 
demand for the man himself, call upon his nobler qual- 
ities, and don't let him palm ofif on you his second-best. 
Many a man is loved and honored by his business asso- 



156 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

ciates whose wife and children never catch a gUmpse 
of the finer side of him. Demand the exercise of these 
fine traits in the home. Demand that he be a fine man 
in the eyes of his children as in the eyes of his friends. 
Be sure that he will rise to the occasion with a splendid 
sense of having, now, a home that is a home, of having 
a wife who is wived to the man he likes best to be. 

This bids fair to be — as I knew it would, if once I 
permitted myself to write at all on the subject — not a 
paragraph, but a whole essay — or perhaps, if I did not 
check myself, a whole volume ! But after all, what I 
want to say is merely that as no child can be born with- 
out a father, so he cannot be properly trained without 
a father's daily assistance. And that, since most 
fathers come to the task even more untrained than the 
mothers, some training must be undertaken. By 
whom? By the mother. It is, I solemnly believe, 
your duty to go ahead a little on this part of the jour- 
ney, find out what ought to be done, and teach, coax, 
induce your husband to co-operate with you in these 
things. No one knows better than you do that he is 
only a boy at heart after all — perhaps the very dearest 
boy of them all. This boy you have to help while yet 
the other children are little — but be sure that, as you 
teach him, so, all the time, will he teach you. Every 
principle laid down in this book, above all others the 
principle of freedom, will, apply to him. He will take 
the lessons a trifie more reluctantly but more lastingly 
than the younger boys ; and in a little while you will 



THE UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE 157 

be envied of all your women friends because of the 
competency, the reliability, the contentment of your 
children's father. 

THE UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE 
When all is said and done, it remains true that the 
finest, the most subtle and penetrating influence in 
education is precisely that education for which no rules 
can be laid down. It is the silent influence of the mo- 
tives which impel the persons who constantly surround 
us. If we examine for a little our own childhood we 
see at once that this is so. What are those canons of 
conduct by which we judge others and even occasion- 
illy ourselves? Whence came that list of iinpossiblc 
chings, those things that are so closed to us that we 
:annot, even under great stress, of temptation, con- 
ceive ourselves as yielding to them ? 

There is an enlightening story of a young man, born 
and bred a gentleman, who, by the way of fast living 
falls upon poverty. In the hard pressure of his finan- 
cial afifairs he is about to commit suicide, when sud- 
denly he ^nds, in an empty cab, a roll of bills amount- 
ing to some thousands of dollars. The circumstances 
are such that he knows that he can, if he will, discover 
the owner ; or, he can, without fear of detection, keep 
the money himself. He makes up his mind, deliberate- 
ly, to keep it, and then, almost against his will, sub- 
consciously as it were, walks to the office of the man 
who lost the money and restores it to him. 



158 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

Now, doubtless, in his downward career he had 
done many things which judged by any absolute stand- 
ard of morality were quite as wrong as the keeping 
of that money would have been but the fact remained 
that he could not do that deed. Others, yes, but not 
that. He was a gentleman, and gentlemen do not steal 
private property, whatever they may do about public 
property. Yet probably, in all his life he had not once 
been told not to steal — not one word had he been 
taught, openly, on the subject. No one whom he knew 
stole. He was never expected to steal. Stealing was 
a sin beyond the pale. So strong was this unconscious, 
but unvarying influence, that by it he was saved, in 
the hour of extreme need, from even feeling the force 
of a temptation that to a boy born and reared, say, in 
the slums, would have been overwhelming. 

Now, considering such things, 1 take it that it De- 
hooves us, as parents, to look closely at the sort of per- 
sons that we are, clear inside of us. To examine, as 
if with the clear eyes of our own children, waiting to 
be clouded by our sophistries, the motives from which 
we habitually act in the small affairs of everyday life. 
Are we influenced by fear of what the neighbors will 
say? Have we one standard of courtesy for company 
times, and another for private moments? If so, why? 
Are we self-indulgent about trifles? Are we truthful 
in spirit as well as in letter? Do we permit ourselves 
to cheat the street-car and the railroad company, teach- 
ing the child at our side to sit low that he may ride 



THE UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE 159 

for half-fare? Do we seek justice in our bargaining, 
or are we sharp and self-considerate? Do we practice 
democracy, or only talk it and wave the flag at it? 

And so on with a hundred other questions as to those 
small repeated acts, which, springing from base mo- 
tives, may put our unconscious influence with our chil- 
dren in the already over-weighted down-side of the 
scale ; or met bravely and nobly, at some expense of 
convenience, may help to enlighten the weight of in- 
herited evil. Sometimes I wonder how much of what 
we call inherited evil is the result not of heredity at 
all, but of this sort of unconscious education. 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 



THE SELF-DISTRUSTFUL CHILD. 

"Your question is an excellent one. The answer to 
it is really contained in your answer to the question 
about obedience. If a child obeys lazvs not persons, 
and is steadily shown the reasonableness of what is 
required of him, he comes to trust those laws and to 
trust himself when he is conscious of obeying. But in 
addition to this general training, it might be well to 
give a self-distrustful child easy work to do — work 
well within his ability — then to praise him for per- 
forming it ; give him something a little harder, but 
still within his reach, and so on, steadily calling on 
him for greater and greater effort, but seeing to it 
that the effort is not too great and that it bears visible 
fruit. He should never be allowed to be discouraged; 
and when he droops over his work, some strong, 
friendly help may well be given him. Sensitive, con- 
scientious children, such as I imagine you were, are 
sometimes overwhelmed in this way by parents, quite 
unconscious of the pain they are giving by assigning 
tasks that are beyond the strength and courage of the 
young toilers. 

"At the same time, much might be done by training 
the child's attention from product to process. You 
know the St. Louis Fair does not aim to show what 
has been done, but how. things are done. So a child 
— so you — can find happiness and intellectual uplift in 

160 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS i6i 

studying the laws at work under the simplest em- 
ployment instead of counting the number of things 
finished." 

COMPANY WAYS 

"A boy who is visiting us is so beset with rules and 
'nagged' even by glances and nudges, that I wonder 
that he is not bewildered and rebellious. He seems 
good and pleasant and obedient (12 years old), but 
I keep wondering why?" 

"Perhaps these were company ways inspired by an 
over-anxiety on his mother's part that'he should appear 
well. Oh, I have been so tempted in this direction !— 
for of course people look at my children to see if they 
prove the truth of my teachings, and as they are vigor- 
ous, free and active youngsters, with decided char- 
acteristics they often do the most unexpected and un- 
comfortable things ! There must be good points both 
in the boy himself — the boy you mention — and in his 
training which offset the bad effects of the 'nagging' 
you notice — and possibly the nagging itself may not 
be customary when he is at Home. And perhaps the 
mother knows that you are a close observer of chil- 
dren." 

THEORY BEFORE PRACTICE 

"There is only one danger in learning about the 
training of children in advance of their advent, ana 
that is the danger of being too sure of ourselves — 
too systematic. The best training is that which is 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

most invisible — which leaves the child most in free- 
dom. Almost the whole duty of mothers is to provide 
the right environment and then just love and enjoy 
the child as he moves and grows in it. But to do 
this apparently easy thing requires so much simplicity 
and directness of vision and most of us are so complex 
and confused that considerable training and consider- 
able effort are required to put us into the right atti- 
tude. 

"For myself, soon after I took my kindergarten 
training, which F did with three babies creeping and 
playing about the school-room, I read George Mere- 
dith's "Ordeal of Richard Feveril" (referred to on p. 
33, Part I) and felt that that book was an excellent 
counter-balance, saving me, in the nick of time, from 
imposing any system, however ..perfect, upon my chil- 
dren. Perhaps you will enjoy reading it, too." 

THE EMOTIONAL APPEAL 

"Doing right from love of parent may easily be- 
come too strong a factor and too much reliance may 
be placed upon it. There are few dangers in child 
training more real than the danger of over working 
the emotional appeal. You do not wish your child to 
form the habit of working for approval, do you? 

THE FOOD QUESTION 

"The food question can be met in less direct ways 
with your young baby. No food but that which is 
good for him need be seen. It is seldom good to have 
so young a child come to the family table. It is better 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 163 

he would have his own meals, so that he is satisfied 
with proper foods before the other appears. Or, if 
he must cat when you do, let him have a little low- 
table to himself, spread with his own pretty little 
dishes and his own chair, with perhaps a doll for com- 
panion or playmate. From this level he can not see 
or be tempted by the viands on the large table ; yet, 
if his table is near your chair you can easily reach 
and serve him. It is a real torment to a young child 
to see things he must not touch or eat, and it is a 
perfectly unnecessary source of trouble. 

"My four children ate at such a low table till the 
oldest was eight years old, when he was promoted 
to our table, and the others followed in due order." 

AIR CASTLES 

"What a wonderful reader you were as a child! 
and certainly the books you mention were far beyond 
you. Yet I can not quite agree that the habit of air- 
castle building is pernicious. Indeed I believe in it. 
It needs only to be balanced by practical effort, di- 
rected towards furnishing an earthly foundation for 
the castle. Build, then, as high and splendid as you 
like, and love them so hard that you are moved to lay 
a few stones on the solid earth as a beginning of a 
more substantial structure ; and some day you may 
wake to find some of your castles coming true. Those 
practical foundation stones underlying a tremendous 
tower of idealism have a geriuine magic power. Duild 



l64 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

all you like about your baby, for instance. Think what 
things Mary pondered in her heart. 

"No, I'm never worried about idealism except when 
it is contented with itself and makes but little effort 
at outward realization. But the fact that you are 
taking this course proves that you will work to realize 
your ideals. 

"I don't think it very bad either to read to "kill 
time." Though if you go on having a family, you 
won't have any time to kill in a very little while. But 
do read on when you can, otherwise you may be shut 
in, first you know, to too small a world, and a mother 
needs to draw her own nourishment from all the 
world, past and present." 

DUTY TO ONESELF 

"Yes, I should say you were distinctly precocious, 
and that you are almost certainly suffering from the 
effects of that early brilliancy. But the degree was 
not so great as to permanently injure you, especially 
if you see what is the matter, and guard against re- 
peating the mistakes of your parents. I mean that 
you can now treat your own body and mind and nerves 
as you wish they had treated them. Pretend that you 
are your own little child, and deal with yourself ten- 
derly and gently, making allowances for the early 
strain to which you were subjected. So few of us 
American women, with our alert minds, and our Puri- 
tanic consciences, have the good sense and self-con- 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 165 

trol to refrain from driving ourselves ; and if, as often 
happens, we have formed the bad habit early in life, 
reform is truly difficult, but not impossible. We can 
get the good of our disability by conscientiously driv- 
ing home the principle that in order to 'love others 
as ourselves' we must learn to love ourselves as zve 
love others. We have literally no right to be unrea- 
sonably exacting toward ourselves, — but perhaps I 
am taking too much upon myself by preaching outside 
the realm of child study." 

• THE MOTHER AND THE TEACHER 

"Your paper has been intensely interesting to me. 
I have always held that a true teacher was really a 
mother, though of a very large flock, just as a true 
mother is really a teacher, though of a very small 
school. The two points of view complete each other 
and I doubt if either mother or teacher can see truly 
without the other. They tell us, you know, that our 
two eyes, with their slight divergence of position, 
are necessary to make us see things as having more 
than one side; and the mother and the teacher, one 
seeing the individual child, the other the child as the 
member of the race, need each other to see the child 
as the complex, many-sided individual he really is. 

"In your school, do you manage to get the mothers 
to co-operate ? Here, I am trying to get near my chil- 
dren's teachers. They try, too ; but it is not altogether 
easy for any of us. We need some common meeting 



i66 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

ground — some neutral activity which we could share. 
If you have any suggestions, I shall be glad to have 
them. Of course, I visit school and the teachers visit 
me, and we are friendly in an arm's length sort of 
fashion. That is largely because they believe in cor- 
poral punishment and practice it freely and it is hard 
for us to look straight at each other over this dis- 
agreement." 

COKPORAL PUNISHMENT. 
To the Matron of a Girls' OrphaH Asylum 

"Now to the specific questions you ask. My •an- 
swers must, of course, be based upon general princi- 
ples — the special application, often so very difficult a 
matter, must be left to you. To begin with corporal 
punishment. You say you are 'personally opposed, 
but that your early training and the literal interpre- 
tation of Solomon's rod keep you undecided.' Surely 
your own comment later shows that part, at least, of 
the influence of your early training was against cor- 
poral punishment, because you saw and felt its evils in 
yourself. Such early training may have made you un- 
apt in thinking of other means of discipline ; but it 
can hardly have made you think of corporal punish- 
ment as right. 

"And how can anyone- take Solomon's rod any more 
literally than she does the Savior's cross? We are 
bid, on a higher authority than Solomon's proverbs, 
to take up our cross and follow Him. This we all 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 167 

interpret figuratively. Would you dream, for instance, 
of binding heavy crosses of wood upon the backs of 
your children because you felt yourselves so enjoined 
in the literal sense of the Scriptures? Why, then, 
take the rod literally? It is as clearly used to desig- 
nate any form of orderly discipline as the cross is used 
to designate endurance of necessary sorrows. 'The 
letter killeth, but the spirit maketh alive.' 

"As to your next question about quick results, I 
must recognize that you are in a most difficult posi- 
tion. For not the best conceivable intentions, nor the 
highest wisdom, can make the unnatural conditions 
you have to meet, as good as natural ones. In any 
asylum many purely artificial requirements must be 
made to meet the artificial situation. Time and space, 
those temporal appearances, grow to be menacing 
monsters, take to themselves the chief realities. Never- 
theless, so far as you are able, you surely want to do 
the natural, right, unforced thing. And with each 
successful effort will come fresh wisdom and fresh 
strength for the next. 

"Let me suggest, in the case you mention, of inso- 
lence, that three practical courses are open to you: 
one to send or lead the child quietly from the room, 
with the least aggressiveness possible, so as not fur- 
ther to excite her opposition, and to keep her apart 
from the rest until she is sufficiently anxious for soci- 
ety to be willing to make an efifort to deserve it; or 



i68 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

two, to do nothing, permitting a large and eloquent 
silence to accentuate the rebellious words ; or three, 
to call for the condemnation of the child's mates. 
Speaking to one or two whose response you are sure 
of first, ask each one present for an expression of 
opinion. This is so severe a punishment that it ought 
not often to be invoked ; but it is deadly sure. 

STEALING 

"The question of honesty is, indeed, most difficult. 
I do not think it would lower the standard of morality 
to assume honesty, as the thing you expected to find, 
to accept almost any other explanation, to agree with 
the whole body of children that dishonesty was so 
much the fault of dreadfully poor people who had 
nothing unless they stole it, that it could not be their 
fault, who had so much — couldn't be the fault of any- 
one who was well brought up, as they were. Empha- 
size, in story and side allusion, at all sorts of odd mo- 
ments when no concrete desire called away the chil- 
dren's minds, the fact that honesty is to be expected 
everywhere, except among terribly unfortunate people 
— of course assuming that they with their good shelter 
and good schooling are among the fortunate ones. 
Then you will give to each child not only plenty of 
everything, but things individualized, easily distin- 
guished, and a place to put them in. I've often thought 
that the habit of buying things wholesale — so many 
dolls, all exactly alike, so many yards of calico for 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 169 

dresses, all exactly alike^ leads, in institutions like 
yours, to a vague conception of private property, and 
even of individuality itself. If some room could be 
allowed for free choice — the children be allowed to 
buy' their own calicoes, within a given price, or to 
choose the trimmings or style, etc. I feel sure the re- 
sult would be a sturdier self-respect and a greater 
sense of that difference between individuals which 
needs emphasizing just as mucn as does the solidarity 
of individuals." * * * 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BOOKS FOR MOTHERS 
Fundamental Books (Philosophy erf Education— Pedagogy) 

The Science of Rights ($5.00, postage 30c), J. G. Fichte. 
Education of Man ($1.50, postage 12c), Friedrich Froebeh 
Mottoes and Commentaries of Froebel's Mother Play ($1.50, 

postage 14c), translated by Susan E. Blow. 
The Part Played by Infancy in the Evolution of Man ($2.00, 

postage 15c), from "A Century of Science," article by John 

Fiske. 
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children ($1.50. postage 14c), 

Pestalozzi. 
Levana, Bohn Library ($1.00, postage 12c), Jean Paul Rich- 

ter. 
Education ($1.25, postage 12c), Herbert Spencer. 

I 
General Books on Education 

Household Education ($1.25, postage loc), Harriet Mar- 
tineau. 

Bits of Talk About Home Matters ($1.25, postage loc), H. H. 
Jackson. 

Biography of a Baby ($1.50, postage 12c), Millicent Shinn. 

Study of Child Nature ($1.00, postage loc), Elizabeth Har- 
rison. 

Two Children of the Foot Hills ($1.25, postage loc), Eliza- 
beth Harrison. 

The Moral Instruction of Children ($1.50, postage 14c), Felix 
Adler. 

The Children of the Future ($1.00, postage loc), Nora A. 
Smith. 

Children's Rights ($1.00, postage loc), Kate Douglas Wiggin 
and Nora A. Smith. 

Republic of Childhood (3 vols., each $1.00; postage loc), 

Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith. 

Educational Reformers ($1.50, postage 14c), Quick. 

170 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 171 

Lectures to Kindergartners ($1.00, postage loc), Elizabeth 
Peabody. 

The Place of the Story in Early Education ($0.50, postage 6c), 
Sara E. Wiltse. 

Children's Ways ($1.25, postage loc), Sully. 

Kindergarten and Child Culture Papers ($3.50, postage 20c), 
Barnard. 

Adolescence (2 vols., $7.50; postage 56c), G. Stanley Hall. 
Psychology and Advanced 

The Mind of the Child (2 vols., each $1.50, postage loc), W. 
Preyer. 

The Intellectual and Moral Development of the Child ($1.50, 
postage i2c), G. Compayre. 

Child Study ($1.25, postage 14c), Amy Tanner. 

The Story of the Mind ($0.35, postage 6c), J. Mark Bald- 
win. 

Psychology (Briefer Course, $1.60; postage i6c. Advanced 
Course, 2 vols., $4.80; postage 44c), James. 

School and Society ($1.00, postage loc), John Dewey. 

Emile ($0.90, postage 8c), Rousseau. 

Pedagogics of the Kindergarten ($1.50, postage 12c), Froebel 

Education by Development ($1.50, postage 12c), Froebel, 

Kindergarten and Child Culture Papers, Henry Barnard. 

Letters to a Mother on the Philosophy of Froebel ($1.50. 
postage I2c), Blow. 

Studies of Childhood ($2.50, postage 20c), Sully. 

Mental Development ($1.75, postage i6c), Baldwin. 

Education of Central Nervous System ($1.00, postage i6c), 
Halleck. 

Child Observations, Imitative Symbolic Education $1.50, post- 
age I2c), Blow. 

Interest as Related to Will ($0.25, postage 6c), Dewey. 
Religious Training 

Christian Nurture ($1.25, postage 12c), Horace Bushnell. 



172 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

On Holy Ground ($3.00, postage 30c), W. L. Worcester. 
The Psychology of Rehgion ($1.50, postage 14c), E. D. Star- ^ 
buck. / 

The Sex Question 

The Song of Life ($1.25, postage 12c), Margaret Morley. 

What a Young Boy Ought to Know ($1.00, postage loc), Rev. 
Sylvanus Stall. 

What a Young Girl Ought to Know ($1.00, postage loc), Rev. 
Sylvanus Stall. 

Duties of Parents to Children in Regard to Sex ($0.40, 
postage 4c), Rev. Wm. L. Worcester. 

How to Tell the Story of Reproduction to Children, Pamphlet 
5c; order from Mothers' Union, 3408 Harrison Street, Kan- 
sas city, Mo. 

Of General Interest to Mothers 

Wilhelm Meister ($1.00, postage 14c), Goethe. 

Story of My Life ($1.50, postage 14c), Helen Keller. 

The Ordeal of Richard Fevcril ($1.50, postage 14c), George 
Meredith. 

Up from Slavery ($1.50, postage 14c), Booker T. Wash- 
ington. 

Emmy Lou ($1.50, postage 14c), Mrs. George Madden Mar- 
ten. 

The Golden Age ($1.00, postage loc), Kenneth Grahame, 

Dream Days ($1.00, postage loc), Kenneth Grahame. 

In the Morning- Glow ($1.25, postage 12c), Roy Rolf Gil- 
son. 

Man and His Handiwork, Wood. 

Primitive Industry ($5.00, postage 40c), Abbott. 

Every Day Essays ($1.25, postage loc), Marion Foster Wash- 
burne. 

Family Secrets $1.25, postage loc), Marion FDster Wash- 
burne. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 173 

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN 
Fairy Tales 

Grimm's Fairy Tales ($0.50, postage 14c). 

Andrew Lang's Green, Yellow, Blue and Red Fairy Books 
(each $0.50, postage 14c). 

Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales ($0.50, postage 14c). 

Tanglewood Tales ($0.75, postage 14c), Hawthorne. 

The Wonder Book ($0.75, postage 12c), Hawthorne. 

Old Fashioned Fairy Tales by Tom Hood, retold by Marion 
Foster Washburne. (In press.) 

Adventures of a Brownie, by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik 
Edited by Marion Foster Washburne. (In press.) 
A Few Books for Various Ages 

Water Babies ($0.75, postage 12c), Charles Kingsley. 

At the Back of the North Wind ($0.75, postage 12c), George 
McDonald. 

Little Lame Prince ($0.50, postage 8c), Dinah Maria Mulock 
Craik. 

In the Child World ($2.00, postage i6c), Emilie Poulson. 

Nature Myths ($0.35, postage 6c), Flora J. Cooke. 

Sharp Eyes ($2.50, postage i8c), Gibson. 

Stories Mother Nature Told ($0.50, postage 6c), Jane An- 
drew. 

Jungle Books (2 vols, each $1.50; postage i6c), Kipling. 

Just-So Stories ($1.20, postage 12c), Kipling. 

Music for Children 
Finger Plays ($1.25, postage 12c), Emilie Poulson. 
Fifty Children's Songs, Reinecke. 
Songs of the Child World (2 vols., each $1.00; postage 12c), 

Gaynor. 
Songs for the Children (2 vols., each $1.25; postage 14c), 

Eleanor Smith. 
30 Selected Studies (Instrumental), ($1.50, postage 14c), 

Heller. 



174 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 



Pictures for Children 

Detaille Prints, Boutet de Monvil, Joan of Are. 

Caldecott ; Picture Books (4 vols., each $1.25; postage 12c). 

Walter Crane: Picture Books ($1.25, postage loc). 

Colored illustrations cut from magazines, notably those drawn 
by Howard Pyle, Elizabeth Shippen Greene, and Jessie Wil- 
cox Smith. 

See articles in "Craftsman" for December, 1904, February 
and April, 1905, "Decorations for School Room and 
Nursery." 
Note.— ^ooks in the above list may be purchased through 

the American School of Home Economics at the prices given. 

Members of the School w^ill receive students' discount. 



Program for Supplemental Work 

on the 

STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

l!v Marion Foster Washburn. 



MEETING I 
Infancy. (Study pages 3-25) 

(a) Its Meaning. 

See Fiske on "The Part Played by Infancy in the EvoUition 
of Man" in "A Century of Science" (i6c). 

(b) General Laws of Progression. 

See Millicent Shinn's "Biography of a Baby" (12c), and W. 
Preyer's "The Mind of the Child" (20c). Give resumes of 
these two books. 

(c) Practical Conclusions. 

Hold Experience Meeting to conclude afternoon. 



MEETING II 
Faults and Their Remedies. (Study pages 26-57) 

(a) General Principles of Moral Training. 

Read Herbert Spencer on "Education" (12c), chapter on 
"Punishment"; also call for quotations from H. H. Jack- 
son's "Bits of Talk About Home Matters" (loc). 

(b) Corporal Punishment. Why It Is Wrong. 

(c) Positive Versus Negative Moral Training. 

Read extracts from Froebel's "Education of Man" (12c), 
and Richter's "Levana" (12c), Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Chil- 
dren's Rights" (loc), and Elizabeth Harrison's "Study of 
Child Nature" (foe)', are easier and pleasanter reading, sound, 
but less fundamental. Choice may be made between these 
two sets of books, according to conditions. 

(Select answer to test questions on Part I and send them 
to the School.) 

175 



176 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

MEETING III 

Character Building. (Study pages 59-75) 

Read extracts from Froebel, Pestalozzi, and Harriet Mar- 
tineau. 

(a) From Froebel to show general principles (i2c). 

(b) From Pestalozzi (14c) or if that is not available, 
from "Mottoes and Commentaries on Froebel's Mother- 
Play" (14c), to show ideal application of these general prin- 
ciples. 

(c) From Harriet M'artineau's "Household Education" 
(loc), or "Children's Rights" (loc), to show actual applica- 
tion of these general principles. Experience meeting. 



MEETING IV 
Educational Value of Play and Occupations. (Study pages 78-99) 

(a) General Principles — Quote authorities from past to 
present. Read from "Education of Man" (12c) and "Mother 
Play" (14c). 

(b) Representative and Symbolic Plays. See "Education 
of Man" (i2c) and "Letters to a Mother on the Philosophy 
of Froebel" (12c). Dancing and Drama from Richter's 
"Levana" (12c). 

(c) Nature's Playthings (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water). 
Ask members of class to describe plays of their own child- 
hood and tell what they meant to them. 

(Select answer to test questions on Part H.) 



MEETING V 
Art and Literature in Child Life. (Study pages 100-112) 

Ask members to bring good .pictures and story-books, thus 
making exhibit. 

(a) Place of Pictures in Children's Lives. Of Color. Of 
Modeling. Influence of artistic surroundings. If anyone 
knows of a model nursery or schoolroom, let her describe it. 



CLASS STUDY PROGRAM 177 

Are drawing and modeling at school "fads" or living bases 
for educational processes? See Dewey on "The School and 
Society" (loc). 

(b) Place of fiction in education. 

See "The Place of the Story in Early Education" (6c). 

(c) Accomplishments. Practical discussion of the ad- 
vantages and disadvantages of music lessons, the languages, 
and other work out of school. See "Adolescence," by G. 
Stanley Hall. 



MEETING VI 

Social and Religious Training. (Study pages 114-140 and 

Supplement) 

(a) The Question of Associations. 

See Dewey's "The School and Society" (loc), "The Republic 
of Childhood" (30c). Quote "Up from Slavery" (14c) and 
"Story of My Life" (14c), to show that the humblest com- 
panions may sometimes be the most desirable. 

(b) The New Education. 

See catalogues of the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, 
111., (4c) ; The Elementary School, University of Chicago. 
(6c) ; State Normal School, Hyannis, Mass., (4c) ; "School 
Gardens," Bulletin No. 160, Office of Experiment Stations, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, (2c). 

(c) The Sex Question. 

Where are the foundations of morality laid — in church, school, 
home, or street? Read entire, "Duties of Parents to Children 
in Regard to Sex" (pamphlet, sc). 

(d) Religious Training. 

Read from "Christian Nurture" (12c) and "Psychology of 
Religion" (14c). 

(Select answer to test questions on Part IIL) 



For more extended program, book lists for mothers, 
children's book list, loan papers, send to the National Con- 



178 STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 

gress of Mothers, Mrs. E. C. Grice, Corresponding Secretary, 
3308 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Price, 10 cents each. 
See also "The Child in Home, School, and State," with address 
by President Roosevelt. — Report of the N. C. M. for 1905. 
Price, 50C. 

Note. — When reference books mentioned in the foregoing 
program are not available from public libraries, they may 
be borrowed of the A. S. H. E. for the cost of postage indi- 
cated in parentheses. Three books may be borrowed at one 
time by a class, one by an individual. For class work, a 
book may be kept for two weeks, or longer, if there is no 
other call for it. Send stamps with requests, which should be 
made several weeks in advance to avoid disappointment. 



INDEX 



Abnormal laziness, 47 

Abstract studies, 119 

Accomplishments and stud- 
ies, 119 
showy, 123 

Accounts, personal, 129 

Adolescence, religious exci- 
tability of, 136 

Adult's world, 24 

Advantage of positive com- 
inands, 61 

Affections, cultivation of, 45 

Aims of kindergarten, 45 

Air as a plaything, 82 
castles, 163 

Allowance, regular, 127 

Alternate growth of children, 

14 
Anaemia, 47 

Answer honest questions, 7 i 
Answers to questions, 160 
Application of principles, 141 
Aristotle's teachings, 76 
Art and literature in child 
life, 10 1 

and nature, 112 

classic, 102 

influence of, loi 

plastic, 104 
Associates, children's, 113 

exclusive, 114 

Baby- jumpers, 14 - 
Bandaging the abdomen, 21 
Beginnings of will, 7 
Bible, children's, 139 



Bible lessons made real, 139 

study, 138 
Bonfires, 85 

Books for children, iii, 170 
Bottle-fed babies, 25 
Breaking the will, 29 
Busy work, 97 

Care of pets, 45 

Cause of impudence, 51 

of iritability and nervous- 
ness, 35 

of rupture, 21 

of temper, 35 
Character building, rules in, 74 
Children, other people's, 145 
Children's associates, 113 

Bible, 139 

clubs, value of, 45 

hour, the, 118 
Child's share in family re- 
public, 65 

world, 24 
Classic art, 102 
Clay modeling, 80 
Climbing, 13 
Clothing, proper, 20 
Color, 102 

Colored pictures, 104 
Commands, disagreeable, 37 

positive, 35 

useless, 11 
Company ways, 161 
Conclusion, 140 
Condition at birth, 3 
Consciousness of self, 6 



179 



i8o 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 



Corporal punishment, 54, 166 
Correlation of studies, 121 
Correspondence training, 142 
Costume, model, 21 
Creeping, 12 
Cultivate affections, 45 
Cutting and pasting, 99 

Daily outing, 18 
Dancing for children, 87 
Danger of forcing, 1 2 
Dangerous pastimes, 83 
Darwin's observations, 9 
Depravity, original, 61 
Development of intellect, 126 

premature, 3 
Diagram of Gertrude suit, 23 
Diet, simple, 25 
Disadvantages of Sunday 

Schools, 134 
Disagreeable commands, 37 
Discipline, educative, 57 
Disobedience, 30 

real, t^t, 
Double standard of morality, 

53 
Double standards, 158 
Drama, 107 
Dramatic games, 107 

plays, 87 
Drawing and painting, 99 
Dress for play, 79 
Dress, proper, 20 
Duties, systematized, 37 
Duty to one's self, 164 

Education, the new, 120 

scientific, 121 
Educational beginnings, 5 

exercises, 5 

value of play, 77 
Educative discipline, 57 
Effect of Sunday school teach- 
ing, 132 



Emergencies, 30 
Enthusiasm, religious, 135 
"Enthusiasms," 124 
Essentials of play, 78 
Evasive lying, 39 
Evils, permanent, 28 

resulting from corporal pun- 
ishment, 55 
Example, bad, 52 

courteous, 54 

evil, 115 

versus precept, 34, 68 
Exclusive associates, 114 

Fairy tales, 109 
Family republic, 64 
Fathers, 152 

responsibilities of, 154 
Fatigue harmful to children, 

94 
Faults and their remedies, 26 

real, 28 

temporary, 24 
Fear versus love, 55 
Feeding, indiscriminate, 25 
Financial training, 126 
Fire as a plaything, 84 
First grasping, 9 
Fiske's doctrine of right, 64 

teachings, 15 
Food, natural, 24 

question, 162 

undesired, 11 
Forcing, danger of, 12 
Fresh air, 18 
Froebel's great motto, 70 

philosophy, 59 
Fundamental principles of the 
the new education, 59 

Games, drmatic, 107 
Gardens for children, 81 
Gertrude suit, 21 
Goodness, original, 61 



INDEX 



Goodness, negative, 32 
Grasping, 9,11 
Growth of children, 14 
of will, 8 

Helping, 93 

mother, 91 
Home kindergarten, 90 
How the child develops, 3 

Imagination and sympathy, 

1 10 
Imitativeness, instinct of, 32 
Imaginative lying, 39 
Iinmature judgment, 30 
Impudence, cause of, 51 
Incomplete development at 

birth, 4 
Indiscriminate feeding, 25 

punishment, 55 
Industry, willing, 94 
Influence of art, loi 
Inherited crookedness, 41 

disposition, 38 
Instinct, 9 

of imitativeness, 32 
Insrumental music, 107 
Intellect, development of, 126 
Irritability, cause of, 35 

Jealousy, 42 

Justice and love in the family, 
42 

Kindergarten, aims of, 45 
as a remedy for selfishness, 

44 
jnethods, 62 

methods in the home, 90 
social advantages of, 113 
Knit garments, 22 

Law-making habit, 70 
Laziness, 46 



Liberty, ZZ> 64 
Limitations of words, 67 
Literature, 108 

and art, loi 
Looking, 9 
Love of work, 93 

versus fear, 55 
Low voice commands, 66 
Lungs, weak, 21 
Luther's teachings, 76 
Lying, evasive, 39 

imaginative, 39 

kinds of, 38 

politic, 40 

Magazines for children, iii 
Magic lantern, 85 
Massage, 5 

Meaning of righteousness, 72 
Model costume, 21 
Modeling apron, 81 

clay, 80 
Monotony undesirable, 95 
Moral precocity, 73 

training, object of, 60 
Mother and teacher, 165 
Mother, teaching, 92 
Mothers as teachers, 134 
Mud pies, 80 
Muscular development, 5 
Music for children, 106 

instrumental, 107 

study of, I 24 
Mystery of sex, 72 

Nagging, 96 
Naps, 20 
Natural food, 24 

punishment, 29 

talent, 124 
Nature study, 112 
Negative goodness, 32 
Neighbors' opinions, 63 
Nervousness, cause of, 35 



STUDY OF CHILD LIFE 



New education, the, 120 

principles of, 59 
Normal child, 1 2 
Nursery requisites, 16 

Object of moral training, 60 

of punishment, 40 
Objection to pinning blank- 
et, 21 
Obligation of trvithfulness, 38 
Occupations, 90 
Only child, the, 44 
Opportunity for growth, 16 
Order of development, 9 
Other people's children, 145 
Outing, daily, 18 

Painting and drawing, 99 
Parental indulgence, 154 

vanity, 125 
Pasting and cutting, 99 
Permanent evils, 28 
Personal accounts, 129 
Pets, care of, 45 
Physical cause of laziness, 46 

culture, 123 

culture records, 25 
Philosophy, Fro^bel's 59 
Pictures, colored, 104 
Pinning blanket, objection to, 

21 
Plastic art, 104 
Play, 76 

educational value of, 77 

essentials of, 78 

with the limbs, 5 
Politeness to children, 69- 
Politic lie, the, 40 
Positive commands, 35, 61 
Precautions to prevent at- 
tacks of temper, 37 

with fire, 84 
Precocity, 15 

moral, 73 



Premature development, 3 
Preyer's record, 11, 19 
Principles, application of, 141 
Prohibitions, useless, 34 
Punishment, corporal, 54 

indiscriminate, 55 

natural, 29 

object of, 40 

self, 34 

Questions, answers to, 160 
Quick temper, 35 

Real disobedience, t^t, 

faults, 28 
Reflex grasping, 7 
Regular allowance, 127 
Religious enthusiasm, 135 

excitability of adolescence, 
136 

training, 131 
Remedy for fits of temper, 36 
Responsibilities of fathers, 154 
Restrictions of dress, 79 
Rhythmic movements, 86 
Richter's views, 28, 87 
Right doing, 28 

inade easy, 63 
Righteousness, meaning of, 72 
Right material for play, 79 
Rights of others, 64 
Rules in character building, 74 
Rupture, cause of, 21 

Sand piles, 80 
Scientific education, 121 
Self-distrustful child, 160 
Selfishness, 43 
Self-mastery, 29 

punishment, 34 
Sewing, 98 
Sex, 71 

mystery of, 72 

question, the, 149 



INDEX 



183 



Showy acconiplishinents, 123 
Simple diet, 25 
Sleep, sufficient, 19 
Social advantages of kinder- 
garten, 113 
vSoft spot in head, 4 
Solitude remedy for temper, 36 
Songs for children, 86 
Spencer's views, 29 
Spending foolishly, 128 

wisely, 127 
Standard of morality, double, 

53- 
Standing, 14 
Stanley Hall's views, 137 
Stealing, 168 
Stockinet for txndergamients, 

22 
Story telling, 93 
Studies, abstract, 119 

and accomplishments, 119 

correlation of, 121 
Success in child training, 143 
Sullenness, 38 

Sunday school, disadvantage 
of, 134 

effect of, 132 

teachers, 131 
Sunlight necessary for growth, 

16 
Sympathy and imagination, 
1 10 

in play, 79 
Symptoms of anaemia, 47 
Systematized duties, 37 

Talent, natural, 124 
Teaching mother, 92 
Telling stories, 93 
Temperament, emotional, 42 
Temperature of nursery, 18 
Temper, cause of, 35 

precautions to prevent at- 
tacks of, 37 



Temporary faults, 24 
Theater, 108 

Theory before practice, 161 
Thermometer in nursery, 18 
Throwing, 10 
Tiedmann's teachings, 35 
Touching forbidden things, 1 1 
Toys, 83, 88, 89 
Training, financial, 126 

for parents, 142 

religious, 131 
Truthfulness, obligations of, 38 

Unconscious influence, 157 
Underclothing, 22 
Undesired food, 11 
Undisciplined will, 30 
Unresponsiveness, 38 
Unsought advice, 148 
Untidiness, its remedy, 49 
Useless commands, 1 1 
prohibitions, 34 

Value of children's clubs, 45 
Vanity, parental, 125 
Variable periods of growth, 

15 
Ventilation, means of, 18 

Walking, 14 

Water as a plaything, 82 

colors, 99 
Weak lungs, 21 
Weight at birth, 4 
Wholesome surroundings, 16 
Will, beginnings of, 7 

breaking, the, 29 

growth of, 8 
Willful child, 34 
Willing industry, 94 
Will, undisciplined, 30 
Work, beautiful, 96 

love of, 93 
Wrappings, extra, 21 




THE LIBRARY OF 

PARTIAL SYNOPSIS 

Vol. L THE HOUSE: ITS PLAN, DECORATION AND CARE, by 

Prof. Isabel Bevier, University of Illinois. 

Treats of the development of the modern 
home and the American house, the planning of 
convenient houses, construction, floors ; the 
problems of decoration and furnishing ; gives 
suggestions for changes, repairs, household con- 
veniences, "The Cost of Building," etc. 

Vol. II. HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY, by 

S. Maria Elliott, Simmons College, 

Boston. 
An interesting account of the microscopic forms of life and their 
relation for good and evil to the household; what dust is and how to 
make "dust gardens"; disease germs and how^ to avoid them; the protect- 
in gagencies of the body and how to keep them active; sanitation, etc 

Vol. III. HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE, by S. Maria Elliott, Simmons 
College. 

The healthful home; the best situation for the 
house; importance of the cellar; all about drainage, 
heating, lighting, disposal of wastes, plumbing 
tests, the water supply; practical suggestions for 
sanitary furnishings and care; hygenic house- 
keeping, etc. 

Vol. IV. CHEMISTRY OF THE HOUSEHOLD, by Margaret E. 
Dodd, S. B., Mass. Institute of Technology. 
"A Day's Chemistry" — a fascinating account of the unseen forces 
in the common things met in a day's work — 
water, air, fire, fuel; chemistry of food, of 
digestion, of cookery, of baking powder, of 
cleaning, of laundry, of stains, of lighting; 
home tests; home-made baking powder, soap, 
etc., etc. 

Vol. V. PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY, by Anna Barrows, Columbia 
University and Chautauqua School of Cookery. 
"'A key to the cook books" — analyzing and explaining the principles 
on which success rests; all approved methods of cookery explained 
particular attention being paid to economy of time and materials; full con- 
sideration of menus, making a fii'eiess cook-stove, "Directions for 
Waitresses," etc. 

Vol. VL FOOD AND DIETETICS, by Prof. Alice P. Norton, Univer- 
sity of Chicago. 

Tells of the composition, nutritive value and 
digestibility of foods; how the body makes use of 
food; food economy; the balanced ration; healthful 
diet for the sedentary, the aged, the children, and 
so on; food adulterations, etc. 



^"^iT^i^ 







HOME ECONOMICS 

Vol. VII. HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT, by Prof. Bertha M. Terrill 

of Hartford School of Pedagogy. 
Full treatise on economy in spending; the proper division of in- 
come; systems of household accounting; system in housework; the 
servant problem; help by the hour; buying supplies and furnishings; 
aow to market economically; cuts of meat; season of vegetables; ex- 
periences of students; "Co-operative Housekeeping," etc. 

Vol. VIII. PERSONAL HYGIENE, by M. LeBos- 
quet, S. B., Director of A. S. H. E. 

The wonderful human machine; running the 
machine; care of the machine — sufficient physiol- 
ogy given to show the reasons for the directions 
for maintaining health; emphasis placed on do 
rather than don't; articles on "Ethics of Health," 
"Use and Abuse of Drugs," etc. 

Vol. IX. HOME CARE OF THE SICK, by Amy 
E. Pope, Presbyterian Hospital, New York 
City. 

Includes the essentials of trained nursing; specific 
directions for handling and caring for the patient; 
nursing in contagious diseases; obstetrics; food for 
the sick; emergencies; poisons and their antidotes; 
bandaging; articles on communicable diseases, etc. 

Vol. X TEXTILES AND CLOTHING, by Kate H. Watson, formerly 
Lewis Institute and University of Chicago. 

Fully illustrated descriptions of primitive and 
modern methods of manufacture; textile fibres 
and fabrics; plain and ornamental stitches and 
their applications; machine sewing; cutting and 
fitting of waists and skirts, color and ornament; 
children's clothes; repairs, etc. 

Vol. XL STUDY OF CHILD LIFE, by Marion Foster Washburne, 

editor "Mothers Magazine." 
Thoroughly sensible and practical directions for the treatment of 
children; faults and their remedies; character building;, home occupa- 
tions; play; associates; studies and accomplishments; religious traming; 
the sex question, answers to questions, etc. 

Vol. XIL CARE OF CHILDREN, by Dr. A. C. Cotton, Prof Chil- 
dren's Diseases, Rush Medical College, University of Chicago. 
The care of the baby before birth and of the . | [ f j T - 
new baby; healthful clothing; development and '~'/^-\ 
growth of the child; authoritative and specific 
directions for feeding; food disorders; food for 
older children; treatment of children's ailments, 
hygiene of the child through the pubescence 
period, etc. 

Each volume has a program for supplemental study, arranged 
especially for clubs, giving references, exhibits, experiments., etc. 





f urp00^ of tlj? (HmtB^ 

T^O make housekeeping an inspiring profession, instead 
of deadening drudgery. 

"T^O make the daily work in the home of fascinating in- 
terest instead of monotonous labor. 

npO make housekeeping easier and simpler by utilizing 
modern science in the home. 

'X'O make the household money go further, that the 
higher things of life may be included. 

'T'O preserve and increase health, and thereby promote 
happiness and prosperity. 

T^O develop the children — mentally, morally and physi- 
cally — to their finest possibilities. 

nrO effect the conservation and improvement of the 
American home. 

T^O raise ideals of American home-making. 

— American School of Home Economics. 

NOTE— The 100-page booklet, "The Profession of Home-Making," gives 
details of the home-study domestic science courses. It's free. Bulletins 
"The Up-to-Uate Home," "Free Hand Oooking" and "Food Values," 10c 
each. Address— A. S. H. E., 506 W. 69th St., Ghicago, 111. 



ANNOUNCEMENT 

"LESSONS IN COOKING, THROUGH THE PREP- 
ARATION OF MEALS." 

THIS new correspondence course in cookery has been 
prepared to meet the needs of home-makers who have 
had Httle or no systematic training in modern methods 
of cooking but who desire to provide for their famiUes sim- 
ple, yet appetizing and wholesome meals, with the last 'ex- 
penditure of time, effort and money. 

The ordinary cook book, with its numerous and compli- 
cated recipes, is of little help to the beginner. It does not 
answer the oft occurring question, "What shall I provide for 
today, tomorrow, for next week"? It gives fio hint of 
wholesome food combinations or balanced diet. 

The problem of home cooking is not only how to cook 
various separate dishes but how to prepare zvliole meals. 
The plan of "Lessons in Cooking" is unique and original in 
that a systematic course in cooking is taught through a series 
of menus, with detailed directions, not only for cooking the 
separate dishes, but also for preparing and serving each meal 
as a zvhole. The course is divided into twelve parts, in each 
of which is given the recipes for a week's menu, typical of 
one month of the year — over 250 meals in all. In the first 
lessons, simple operations of cooking are described apd 
gradually the more difficult and complicated recipes are in- 
troduced, leading to advanced work in the later lessons. 
Throughout the course the question of wholesome food com- 
binations and balanced meals is carefully considered and 
special emphasis is given to economy of time and money. 

All available authorities have been consulted and the 
assistance of a number of prominent teachers of cookery 
has been obtained in the preparation of this course, which 
presents the best modern methods and the latest scientific 
discoveries relating to the "Fine Art of Cooking." 



iUN 24 19ri 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



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